Artist statement
The gift of death, the gift of life
The condition of life under late capitalism is often described as “precarious”: we hear references to precarious labour in the globalised market; a precarious future facing retirees, students and prospective house-buyers; the precarious lives of refugees and illegal immigrants. The political condition of instability and insecurity is also underpinned by a metaphysical sense of the transience of things, one that led German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe being in the world as “being-toward-death”.
Alicja Dobrucka’s evolving practice, temporarily stabilised and collected in her recent project, “I like you, I like you a lot”, powerfully encapsulates this double meaning of precariousness. Ostensibly a reflection on the artist’s and her family’s bereavement after the sudden tragic loss of her younger brother, the work opens up the personal space of mourning to broader affects and questions about vulnerability, youth, motherhood, domesticity and the passage of time. In one sense, Dobrucka’s project remains in explicit dialogue with that quintessential text on photography and death: Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, in which the French writer mourns the passing away of his dear mother, while also anointing photography with a funereal mark for generations of artists and critics to come.
Yet Dobrucka also seems to achieve something different with her work. While facing and confronting death - tearfully, anxiously, despondently, perhaps even angrily - she also creates openings in the wall of mourning by letting the light in. The personal domestic spaces and objects presented in the images become vehicles for a transitional journey from the familiar to the unknown, a journey of maturation for both individuals and a whole generation. It is this generational aspect that anchors the project. Rather than being about the passage of time, and of life, everywhere, every time, the work takes as its focus a group of central European youths in a small urban-rural locality, on their way to a fuller, more mature, life.
The landscape shots included in Dobrucka’s project seem to a play on the memento mori theme so prominent in art, with mors giving way here to tender vulnerability. The leaning tree, the wavering reed, the passing shafts of light, are both reminders of transience and props for the viewer’s own anxious and wounded self. In this way, the artist turns the realm of personal tragedy into a safe space in which we can all experience the precariousness of life: safely, vicariously, at one remove. The square format images become containers for this experience: a magic boxes that give us back vitality - which we should grab while we can.
Joanna Zylinska is a Reader in New Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, a cultural critic and a fine art photographer. Her most recent book is Bioethics in the Age of New Media.
Qualifications and training
- 2010 Fine Art Photography, London College of Communication, London
- 2007 Erasmus Exchange program, FAMU, Prague
Solo exhibitions
- 2011 I like you, I like you a lot, Tirana Ekspres, Tirana, Albania
- 2011 Dystans, The Agency Gallery, London
- 2010 I like you, I like you a lot, Tuzrakter Arts Centre, Kallitas Elott Galeria, Budapest
- 2007 The Swimming Pool Series, The Foundry, London
Group exhibitions
- 2012 Concrete In Common, Albania's Bunker Legacy, Kunst Raum Riechen, Basel
- 2012 Subject to Change, Kursaal space, Southend on Sea
- 2012 Culture Translated, Barbican, London
- 2011 New Contemporaries, ICA, London
- 2011 Open Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
- 2011 New Contemporaries, Site Gallery, S1 Art Space, Sheffield
- 2011 Open Exhibition, Charlie Dutton Gallery, London
- 2011 Sortiri Prize, Cultural Centre Lindart Galleria 'Guri Madhi', Pallati i Kultures 'Vangjush Mio', Korce, Albania
- 2011 Instant Coffees, Slideshow, Bristol
- 2011 54th Venice Biennale, The Quaffers Pavilion 'Afternoon Tea', WW Gallery, Venice, Italy
- 2010 Homeless Gallery, London Photomonth, London
- 2010 Nature Rewritten, Wieden + Kennedy, London
- 2010 I like you, I like you a lot, The Courtyard Centre for the Arts, Hereford
- 2010 UK Young Artists, Quad, Derby
- 2010 Fresh Faced Wild Eyed, Photographers' Gallery, London
- 2009 Homeless Gallery, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
- 2009 Ma Fine Art Phtography Final Show, London College of Communication, London
- 2008 Eyes Wide Open, The Blue Dog Gallery, Brighton
- 2007 Signals 5 Festival, Il Restauro, London
Artist talks
- 2012 Artis Talk, Rich Mix, London
- 2010 I like you, I like you a lot, Slideslam, HOST Gallery, London
- 2010 I like you, I like you a lot, Brighton Media Centre, Brighton
- 2008 Artist talk, University of Greenwich, London
Residencies
- 2012 Al Mahatta Gallery Workshop, Al Mahatta Gallery, Ramallah, Palestine
- 2011 Asia Art Projects, Studio X, Mumbai
- 2011 UK Young Artists, QUAD, Derby, UK
Private commissions
- 2012 Deutsche Bank Awards, ICA, London
- 2011 Portrait Commission, Deutsche Bank, London
Competitions, prizes and awards
- 2011 Sortiri Prize Winner, Lindart Arts Center, Korca, Albania
- 2011 Bar Tur Award Nomination, Univarsity of the Arts, London
- 2010 Deutsche Bank Fine Art Photography Award and Grant, Saatchi Gallery, London
Publications
- 2012 NIPHA 2, Manifest Gallery Publication
- 2012 Concrete Mushrooms
- 2011 Hotshoe International Magazine, Artist Feature
- 2011 HESA in Print, "A Sure Thing / Varmaa Seuraa", Issue 5, Helsinki, Finland
- 2011 PropositionInvitationConsequence -UKYA online cat ed. David Eckersley
- 2011 Hijacked 3, Big City Press Pulication, Uk/Australia
- 2011 Proposition Invitation Consequence UKYA project
- 2010 Assembly Journal, Artist Feature, Canada
- 2010 Jotta Interview
- 2010 20x20 magazine, issue four ‘Rescue Club’
- 2010 SuperMassiveBlackHole, Issue#6, Death and the Ritual, Ireland
- 2010 Flash Forward 2010 Magenta Foundation, Canada
Web links - gallery/work/projects
Web links - article/press
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