JULIA POLONSKI
Body: a sense of place
28 August - 1 October 2004
ArtSway is exhibiting works by 2003 ArtSway Open exhibition winner Julia Polonski. Polonski’s work is an investigation of how a person experiences and occupies one’s own bodily space. It is through her large-scale drawings in charcoal and pencil that Polonski utilises a wide range of mark-making to suggest to the viewer the experience of the body.
Polonski encourages the viewer to be drawn into her work through large-scale unframed works and the use of bold gestural marks which are then re-worked with finer detail. Her aim is to encourage the viewer to engage more with the abstract qualities of the drawing rather than with the image alone.
In the process of working Polonski constantly erases and replaces marks, often leaving the corrected areas faintly visible. This residue of medium and imagery results in a drawing of complex layers juxtaposed with each other.
Polonski’s work is also fuelled by her interest in how we perceive a piece of cloth – such as a shroud – and the qualities that are found within it. She considers cloth as a document that can hold the narrative of a body; a document that can be read as a map of physical occupation, human experience, and personal history. To Polonski marked cloth appears able to bind individual and collective experience; the marks are for us to decipher, interpret or qualify. The changing nature of cloth retains stains and the strain of events. It scars as skin does, both exposing and protecting the body. Polonski is concerned that in its efforts to communicate, the body becomes one that hides as much as it reveals.
Julia Polonski was the winner of the 2003 Open exhibition and is based in Salisbury. Her work will be shown in conjunction with Tina Gonsalves’ exhibition Somewhere in Between: Studies in Translocation which explores human emotional response.
Participate
Gallery Talk Saturday August 28 2004 2pm
Join artists Tina Gonsalves and Julia Polonski along with ArtSway Director Mark Segal for an informal tour of the exhibition. FREE
Performance: Medulla Intimata Saturday August 28 2004 3:30pm
Tina Gonsalves and Tom Donaldson of Clutch will be performing a subtle public intervention of Medulla Intimata. Come and interact with the jewellery, meet the designers and learn more about their work. FREE
Little Dragons Saturday 18 2004 10:30 -11:30
Join artist Annabel Richards for this creative art making day for children aged 3-5 and their carers, parents and/or grandparents. Based on themes of Laura Daly's exhibition. COST £4 per child.
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