exhibited by gallery program:

■  viennafair  / solo 2008
■  scope miami / group 2007
■  viennafair  / group 2007
■  artefiera  / group 2007
■  kunst zurich  / group 2006
■  art cologne  / group 2006
■  viennafair  / group 2006
■  artefiera / group 2006
■  time of culture / group 2005
■  supermarket of art / group 2005


catalogue PDF 4 MB

links :


■ photonic moments.
■ deutshe-bank-kunst
■ artfacts.net
■ saatchi gallery
■ culture.pl
■ sekcja.org
■ sekcja.org(1)
■ findarticles.com
■ exit.pl
■ lodz-art.pl

Anna Orlikowska, born in 1979, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź with a diploma in photography and video. Orlikowska works with various media: photography, video and installations. She lives and works in Łódź where her own experiences nourish her threads of creativity. From the cluster of things and cases connected with post-industrial city life and its spaces, she has identified those subjects that are most important and inspirational to her.  Her huge family home, the bed in which she sleeps, her father's workshop are among the remembered spaces that inform her work. Although hidden behind a mask, such as in Dance Macabre, she observes. Although on the outskirts, in the background, ostensibly not herself, she possesses the privilege of distance and independence. As artist she is between. She stands on the edge of events as an outsider and an observer, while still being a participant. Indeed, as the event she is really the center, leading the moment with her thoughts. Her works are a connection of document and staging. In photography, her panoramic images show the larger view. Simultaneously they make spectator to be aware of what is recognizable, what may be seen, and what is further and therefore not visible.

■  presentation of works                                                                  

DANCE MACABRE
presented by Gallery Program in  
■ Scope Miami 2007
■ Artefiera 2007
■ Kunst Zurich 2006
■ Vienna Fair 2006

The photograph-cycle Dance Macabre consists of large format panoramic images of ordinary people in ordinary spaces such as the office and the house. The people framed in these images belong to the presented spaces. The housewives belong to the house, the girl at the computer belongs to the office, an old woman belongs to the bed in which she lies. A girl wearing a cow-mask staring directly at the camera is the recurring visual motif of these images. Her presence is the visual connector between each discretely captured image and the viewer who sees all the photographs of the series. While Orlikowska is the girl in the mask, these are not self-portraits. In the tradition of Barbara Kruger, Orlikowska wants the viewer to look inside the image at the simple yet deeply symbolic scenes rather than see her. Each photograph refers to the visual tradition of memento mori, however it is the title which explicitly refers to death.
      

Terminal Game, 2007, video DVD, 11:00, loop          
■  more works

TERMINAL GAME

A machinima made in a computer game. It is based on Dance of Death by H.Holbein. Originally, Dance of Death was a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death: no matter one’s station in life, the dance of death unites all. Its purpose was to remind people of how fragile their lives were and how vain the glories of earthly life were. “Terminal Game” is a contemporary, computer-based version of this allegry. Usually in the computer world death doesn’t exist- one can always start a new game with a new life. In virtual worlds such as game Second Life players don’t have to worry about physical side of human existence: pain, illness, aging or death. The traditional allegory of Death as a skeleton in the virtual world reminds us of an universal truth: human mortality and bodiliness.

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Film about Worms III, 2005, video DVD, 15:49, loop          
■  more works

FILM  ABOUT  WORMS III 
presented by Gallery Program in  
■ Vienna Fair 2008
■ Arte Fiera 2006
■ Night of The Museums 2006
■ Scope London 2006

In the Film about Worms III Orlikowska clears a space for reflection about beauty. At first we reject the image of hundreds of grotesque worms squirming over each other in a battle to be on top. Their constant pursuit to 'be on top' references our human endeavors for superiority at all costs. Yet after a while we begin to see them aesthetically. The worms are little beings together in one place, and over time they are transmuted into something decorative, like patterned wallpaper. The imagery is accompanied by a soundtrack of Baroque harpsichord music

Closed Circuit, 2006, installation, painted copper pipes,dimensions variable        
■  more works

CLOSED CIRCUIT

.A site-specific installation that in an absurd and surreal way shows how an ordinary object can change its function an become a piece of art. The perfect “white cube” of the gallery is somehow spoilt by the pres­ence of common radiator. Suddenly the object looses its functionality and spreads itself onto the gallery space creating a complicated and abstract ornament of pipes - a piece of art.

Drowning Room, 2004, site-specific installation, cut pieces of furniture,dimensions variable             
■  more works

DROWNING ROOM , 2004


For this installation Orlikowska took  the furniture from her grandmother room and cut all of the pieces to create the impression that the interior is slowly drowning in the floor. In this uncanny space, a viewer could get the impression that he  was drowning along with the furniture. 
The only item in the room that wasn't cut was the stove in a corner - becoming the symbol of normality and resisting the strange force that is deforming the space.