BARBIE VACATION. FROM THE SERIES AFRICA # 29 (2022) Photography by Marta Lesniakowska

In the dazzling sun, the pink interior of the bar electrifies the eye with the dialogue between the interior and exterior, the static of an empty place disappearing in the darkness, and the multiplied dynamics of the city's reflections in the glass. We are separated by glass from the lazy interior, warmed by the summer sun, whose space, built on the sharp contrast of light, shadow and diagonal patterns, we can perceive from the outside. And we see that this scene is not innocent. We discover its ambiguity. The pink toy suddenly loses the characteristics of a sweet mascot from a teenager's room with her first menstruation emotions, and becomes a sexual prop: the flamingo's naked pink leg, its black eye "look" and its phallic beak erotically provoke the passer-by. They create a stuffy atmosphere of a sex shop and shop windows in red light districts. In my remembering gaze, the pink stuffed animal lying provocatively on the pink sofa against the background of the pink wall subliminally evokes Édouard Manet's "Olympia" (1863), one of the canonical images of modernity, whose culturally rooted mythological iconography is a discourse on modernism and its paradigms: in Manet, the looking facing the viewer, a naked woman is no longer an idealized nude, but the living body of a sex worker from the era of early capitalism, exhibited as a commodity. The interior viewed through the glass with the toy luring us in evokes Manet's painting as today's study of secularized culture, emancipated and adapted to the norms of commercial liberalism. In this way, my photography becomes a metamodernist analysis: it refers to the essence of the image as a means of experience and is a critique of images in contemporary mass media. The self-commentary ("description of the image") to my ironic "quasi-Olympia" navigates through a dense network of meanings based on psychoanalysis, semiotics, cultural theory, Gender Studies, studies of the image and its functioning in modernism and 21st century pop culture as metamodernism. As a case study, my photography allows us to observe the ability of images to produce other images, the meaning of which, as Victor Burgin (1973) put it, is the dismantling of existing communication codes and their recombination so that they can be used to generate new images of the world. (ml)

Photography highlighted by the Artmajeur curator as Photography of the Week 2023

In the blinding sunlight, the pink interior of the bar electrifies the eye with a dialogue between inside and outside, the static of the empty premises fading into the darkness and the multiplied dynamics of the city's reflections in the glass. We are separated by the glass from the lazy, summer-sun-warmed interior, whose space, built on a sharp contrast of light, shadow and diagonals, we can perceive from the outside. And we perceive that this scene is not innocent. We discover its ambiguity. The pink toy suddenly loses the qualities of the sweet mascot of a teenage girl's room with its emotions of first menstruation, and becomes explicitly a sexual prop: the flamingo's naked pink leg, its black-eyed 'look' and its phallic beak provoke the passer -by erotically. They produce a sultry atmosphere of sex shop and shop windows in red-light districts. In my memorable gaze, the pink teddy bear, lying provocatively on a pink couch against a pink wall, subliminal evokes Édouard Manet's Olympia (1863), one of the canonical images of modernity, whose culturally rooted mythological iconography is a discourse on modernism and its paradigms: in Manet's work, the naked woman looking directly at the viewer is no longer an idealized nude, but the living body of an early capitalist sex worker, displayed as a commodity. Viewed through the glass, the interior with the toy luring us in thus evokes Manet's image as a contemporary study of secular secularized culture, emancipated and adapted to the norms of commercial liberalism. In this way, my photography becomes a metamodernist analysis: it addresses the essence of the image as a means of experience and is a critique of images in contemporary mass media. The self-commentary ('image description') to my ironic 'quasi-Olimpia' thus lavers in a dense web of meanings based on psychoanalysis, semiotics, cultural theory, Gender Studies, studies on the image and its functioning in modernism and 21st century pop culture as metamodernism. As a case study, then, my photography allows me to observe the ability of images to produce other images, the meaning of which, as Victor Burgin (1973) puts it, is to dismantle existing communicative codes and to recombine them so that they can be used to generate new images of the world. (ml)

Photograph highlighted by curator Artmajeur as Photograph of the Week 2023

Collectible color photography. Digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315g paper (semi-flash), acid-free archival paper. Perfect print BAT (bon á tirer)
ref. on the face and back. dated 2022. Format in light of the image 40x40 cm, paper 50x50 cm. Copy no. 1 from a limited edition of 5 copies, not glued, without binding, without damage
Certificate of authenticity. Archive file: L1220829

Collector's photography color. Digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315g (semi-flash), archival paper, acid-free. print perfect BAT (bon á tirer). signed on the front and on the back. dated 2022. Image size 40x40 cm, paper 50x50 cm. Copy no 1 from a limited edition of 5 copies. not glued, without frame, without damages. Certificate of Authenticity. Ref. archive file: L1220829

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BarbieAfrykaMiastoMartwa NaturaRóżowy