Krystyna Hamera

Artist statement

Ideas of memory, fragility and transition run through my work, through the use of fragile materials such as ash, dust, reflections in water and also the imagery within painted ephemeral family portraits and translucent portraits that I have crafted from old photographs which are placed on glass.

I make ethereal veils as masks of my family ancestors. I place thin films of ash, dust and dirt on floors to stand for ephemeral carpets and patterns found in the home. These can be walked over and are often disrupted. Intricate dust patterns contain footprints and show holes where dust has been dispersed.

This work is nourished by my Polish family history and diaspora (this history is not just today, there are generations and generations, but it is about today.) It is informed by Adlerian Psychotherapy and Adler's work on childhood memory underlying the person we become, and my current experience of working with refugee children.

I show layers of transparent washes of paint within my painted portraits. Some portraits are created from washes of black paint on white paper to stand for phantoms of a past. .