Presence in Absence. Katarzyna Kujawska-Murphy's exhibition in the Nowa Scena Gallery.

Katarzyna Kujawska-Murphy is a visual artist, creator of art installations and academic teacher. Her interest lies primarily in the notions of time and space explored through the lens of psychophysiology of perception, social aspects of human existence immersed in the contemporary urban landscape. She draws on the achievements of modernism and pre-war constructivism, processing pre-existing reality with the use of objects that have specific, utilitarian functions in order to define abstract notions, such as decay, entropy, exhaustion, wear and tear.

Dominika Górowska: We’re meeting to discuss your exhibition “Obiekty identyfikujące: stal, narzędzie, gwóźdź, robotnik. Tkanka domu” (“Identifying Objects: Steel, Tool, Nail, Worker. Home tissue”) that recently opened in the Nowa Scena Gallery by the University of the Arts in Poznan. Could you please tell us something more about this exhibit?

Katarzyna Kujawska-Murphy: The exhibition is a meditation on life, memory and walls. I visualize human achievements, architecture and people around it. However, the state of a wall, a person and memory is often fragmented, incomplete. Social order leaves the traces that define tensions between the internal inertia and the need to “go outside”, the tensions pertaining to unfulfilled needs. Installations on this exhibit, drawings, videos and documentary films visualize and communicate a mindset of a person in the city, their awareness and desires. Self-portrait with no self is presented as disturbance of everyday order, which is expressed through symmetry or lack thereof. The objects are subjected to the forces of physics, gravity and psychophysiology of seeing. The exhibition focuses on the psychological and material “negatives” and “lack”, on pursuing “the absent”. I work not only with large-scale installations, tools, fragments of pipes, frameworks of cities, but also with all fragments of memories.

DG: The exhibition features spatial installations using fused metal components inextricably linked with the space that are complemented with the video footage. What do these elements, their deliberate arrangement and intentional juxtaposition refer to?

KK-M: Steel and rock, shadow, in other words absence of light, provide foundations for my practice, means of communication, elementary notions related to covering and uncovering, continuum, identifying the center, relations of inside-outside, close-far, together-separate. Symmetry plays an enormous role. Occasionally, missing fragments offer key lines of thought about the pieces, whereas the yearning for “the non-existent,” which I’ve mentioned so much, forces me to work. Gravity, which ensures our existence on Earth, is demonstrated by placing granites and marbles on taunt steel cables.

In the context of spontaneous perception, these experiences open up a space for a human being, along with their dynamic field of interacting with time, transience and cyclicality. Building rhythm, setting accents in space or pauses along the continuity of the extrapolated construction specifies the relation between different directions and orders them. It is applied to maintain a logical and clear construction between the object and drawing with the lack of light. Shadow drawing is an integral part of creating several of the recent large-scale installations. Despite my fascination with the psychophysiology of seeing, I’m still delighted by the fact that you can see something that doesn’t exist. We see the SHADOW, which is the LACK OF LIGHT. A tiny thing, and yet it is one of the foundations of an installation, composing a drawing with shadows is essential to creating a whole. Inserted video footage often captures real life situations, such as construction that was happening outside my window during strict lockdown in the pandemic. The second screening reflects the state of mind, it doesn’t impose anything, neither offers answers nor asks questions. It shows a train that keeps leaving, that you still can’t catch, and you can hear the vibration of the wheels on the metal tracks, but the desire to break away from gravity is also there.

DG: In your work, you focus in a very special way on the topic of time and space, their interplay and mutual correlation. How do you define time and space through your work?

KK-M: Time and space, memory and identity – the notions related to continuity and homogeneity turn out to be a tapestry interwoven with various fragments. I’m interested in the collective memory as well as my own, a mind map as well as set boundaries.

We have a sense of fragmentation of the individual, a sense of the lack of continuity in this individual’s existence as if we were the collection of different selves. Absence of identity can be discerned in various stages of life: one is oneself, but never fully; one is someone else when they begin the project and when they prepare the exhibition. Pursuit of oneself can define and position humanity in time. Is there a continuity of personality? Ultimately, we do have a sense of identity, we feel like ourselves. In my opinion, it results from memory and time. It is the memory that binds our evershifting self to a whole/being. Hence, time and space are my constant sources of inspiration in my artistic endeavors, as I look for potential ways to visually communicate some eternal dilemmas. 

Furthermore, space is also far from homogeneous in nature – it is a psychodynamic field which we try to navigate in various ways: by pinpointing the center, familiarizing ourselves with them, at times too brutally. Frequently, my installations subvert these obvious orders through “reversal” or even “opening” the wall…

DG: Your pieces also deal with the correlation between people and reality. How would you define a position of a human being in contemporary culture?

KK-M: Man and reality have always been associated with the search for identity, searching for the mirror in which one could see their reflection, as well as the contexts around them, even behind them. Human identity is therefore closely bound to history, while my own family history, post-war experiences in my family with current personal experiences most definitely also with language. The search of identity through language implies consideration of neighborhood, mutual relations, boundaries and roles, which are intertwined both literally and figuratively. Unfortunately, like everyone, I have concerns about environmental ignorance, exploitation of many countries, including children doing inhumane labor, making art pieces from non-degradable materials. To put it briefly, I am scared of seeing the Cheshire Cat smile. 

DG: Fragments of pipes, nails, drills – seemingly objects of concrete and trivial use. In your works, they acquire another meaning. They are identifying objects filled with symbolism. I associate them with the post-modern contemporary interpretation of Lévi-Strauss’ notion of bricolage, where a common element creates a new quality through recontextualization, variations or repetition. At the same time, what stands out is the material itself, its rawness and lack of nobility. Why exactly did you choose these objects?

KK-M: Fragments such as nails or pipes seem to be essential components to me. Though often invisible, these objects are used to connect various planes that surround us. To me, they seem beautiful in their functionality. Pipes – in the walls, which often provide us with a house, a shelter alongside a sense of security – are hidden channels between the inside and the outside. Claude Lévi-Strauss, who, through the application of the structural method in the humanities, studied the general laws governing human culture, is very aptly quoted. Indeed, the intentionality given to simple but indispensable objects, yet still non-trivial in my view, makes me bring out their underestimated meaning.

I have a huge soft spot for the object of a drill.

In my mind, a drill is a beautiful object, making an almost endless pirouette, an object so delicate yet powerful as it seamlessly drills into the whole “world” (perhaps it’s not that simple on the moon where the temperature drops so much at night that a drill heated from friction would immediately snap). To the question if it’s good or bad, I say no comment. I adore the lightness and simultaneous power of this object. It’s a genius invention.

DG: I’m wondering when the artist decides to embrace the kind of everyday objects you’ve mentioned, then proceed to build their artistic story based on them. What did the search for means of artistic expression look like in your case?

KK-M: When I was a student, “The Poetics of Space” by Gaston Bachelard, a French modern philosopher, made a huge impact on me – alongside my discovery of subjectivity in space evaluation, the 18th-century philosopher Condillac. At the beginning of my artistic journey, I was making site-specific installations for many years. I also created perceptive installations, which I often called painting installations. Consistency, which has always been characteristic of my art practice, is closely linked to the universal aspects of time, space, man and humanity rather than an everyday object. However, it is not always the case. My goal was to somehow distort the surrounding reality, to leave the question or see the world upside down. I made the column, which is a product of its time, its ornamentation signaling the period in history; doric, ionic, corinthian column. I had the need to construct a “contemporary” column where the base is recorded with an upside-down camera that transmits the footage to the TV, thus becoming the base. I called this piece “Pozorne zakończenie” (eng. “Apparent End”). Five of these columns were juxtaposed against the baroque pilasters in the baroque gallery, then with the Bauhaus architecture in Dessau and other gallery spaces. Each time, the base of the column was recorded specifically for the sake of each exposition so that the floor on which the column was standing was the right floor. Furthermore, I noticed everyday objects as I was penetrating the home tissue, our cardinal need. By assigning intention and context to these objects, I can constitute their value.

DG: Do I recognize the references to the aesthetics of pre-war constructivism correctly?

KK-M: I’m glad that one can perfectly recognize my unwavering adoration of constructivism, its meaning for art and historic context behind the many aspects of the emerging movement, of simplifying and minimizing the form so that the content could be expressed more deeply.

DG: I read that you are also interested in video art. What artists have inspired your own videos?

KK-M: I had the honor of making my graduate video art project under the tutelage of prof. Antoni Mikołajczyk, a member of Workshop of the Film Form by the Łódź Film School (apart from the painting project supervised by prof. Jerzy Kałucki). I became deeply fascinated with the camera as an analytical tool allowing for a different kind of perception of reality devoid of “narrative” and “literary” qualities, so distinct from the one we were all used to. My early film work was precisely like this: analytical, devoid of any literariness. 

Today, I need to present other aspects, an intuitive feeling, if possible. A train or the sound of a departing train are both frequent motifs. More often than I could count, I looked in disbelief at the train disappearing into the distance, the train that I missed, still hearing the fading rattle, and I’m just standing there in disbelief wondering how it happened. In my complicated life, a missed train might have grave consequences. I would like to convey the microseconds of feeling powerless, disbelieving and empty, which emerge then in our consciousness.

DG: You touch on the subject of transience, wearing down, exhaustion, entropy and decay. The life of an object is juxtaposed against the life of a human being. I want to ask you about this decay – is it inevitable, motivating, stimulating an action or the opposite? Is an entity (object, person) helpless in the face of entropy?

KK-M: When I think about freedom in art, I lean more towards psychological consideration rather than political one, precisely towards entropy. I attempt to clarify my line of thinking with the phenomenon of communication. Language identity – communication as a communal act – creates a sense of gaining social existence and freedom.

On the other hand, freedom causes fear, feelings of hopelessness and danger, alienation and consequences of these unbearable sensations. The question posed by the project is the following: is fear an irrational phenomenon or evolutionary tool? Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst and philosopher, who also drew on teachings of the aforementioned Claude Lévi-Strauss, speaks in his lectures on the absence of an object as emotionally more active than the object itself. He introduces the notion of desire in the context of the lack or absence, which in his view is the human need for “whole.” Entropy is an object of fear. However, there is also the object of desire (objet petit a) that involves desire not in relation to the object, but in relation to its absence. It is a more potent driving force than the existing sense of fulfillment. To desire freedom means to desire the utopia of sorts, and yet after it is brought into existence it stops satisfying us, thus immediately triggering desire of the unreachable.

Freedom suggests rediscovering continuation, designating a center, relations of symmetry, balance, potential for change. In the context of spontaneous perception, this kind of experience creates a place for a human being, a psychological dynamic field evoking a sense of time, cyclicality and social awareness. Whereas entropy manifests itself clearly not only in organic organisms, but also decaying buildings, fading Poznanska, damp Synagogue or protruding frameworks of faltering houses.

DG: Concept of the city as a living organism subjected to all transformations, rhythms, external and internal processes also seems like something you’re familiar with. Although a sprawling metropolis teems with life, a person living in it experiences the most profound loneliness. Where does this keen artistic interest in the urban landscape come from?

KK-M: I made a project in New York in collaboration with the Kosciuszko Foundation called “Silence in Slow Motion.” More than ever, the 21st century is filled with an endless stream of information, noise, pollution and other stressors that make people feel unsafe. In “Escape from Freedom,” Eric Fromm observes that social psychology shows how the historical eras imply different civilizational values along with fears. In the contemporary world imprisoned by noise, desire for peace is a utopia. Noise is intrinsic to the human psyche because an absolute silence leads to hallucination and pain. Volunteers managed to stay only 45 minutes in the most silent laboratory on Earth located in Orfield, USA. Similarly, defense mechanisms of people, tools of artistic expression are integral to the wellness of human species. However, the use of civilizational pollution, namely the noise which is unhealthy for people, constitutes the policy of myriad world institutions. Many artists designing futuristic visual concepts that expand the imagination also find this topic interesting. Therefore, it is worth noting that depending on the frequency of energy at the level of quanta, sound waves and visible waves are the same waves that have a different frequency on orbits in the atom. That is why RHYTHM (or lack thereof) is so important – it determines one of the quintessential aspects of the sense of being in the urban landscape. Society is something more than a collection of individuals.

DG: Large cities also imply a sense of unbearable loneliness…

KK-M: Westbeth, a famous artists housing in Manhattan with all the essential spaces one might need for living, such as apartments, studios, galleries, common rooms and gyms (tenants included a great painter and father of Robert De Niro, Diane Arbus; Lou Reed had his studio over there; and I had the honor of presenting my work), is infamously known as Death-Beth because it saw about 9 cases of suicides in the 1970s and 1980s, all resulting from the unbearable sense of loneliness. In spite of a family, an artist is in a peculiar position where they are always lonely. I interviewed the oldest tenants of the “utopian” complex (they were about 100 years old) – these artists, despite “entropy” of their memory, shared moving stories behind suicides of very lonely and yet brilliant artists. Some of the artists who used to be associated with Westbeth include the poet Muriel Rukeyser, painter Jack Dowling, stage actor Ralph Lee and photographer Bob Gruen, who is most famous for the picture of John Lennon from 1974. There is also the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Before the complex was converted into artists residencies, it had been the location for the Manhattan project research. I presented this document during one of the post-Manhattan exhibitions at the Wozownia Gallery in Torun.