Kickstarter “Grow A Museum” proposal
ARTIST STATEMENT: F. Marek
There is a belief in Buddhism that desire is the cause of all suffering. My work explores denied expectations and passions that are unrealized or horribly misshapen upon fruition —a heterochrony of yearning.
Though a lush but reductive process— a maximal minimalism —I portray hopes and wants that that go wrong, the tension that arise, and the crush of the consequences of dreams fulfilled. The tableaux takes on multiple forms of expression from open fields of wheat and rye, as well as constructions utilizing animal furs, plastics and resin. They stage confrontations and moments of harmony between the idealistic and materialistic, via the binding of organic and man-made forms and materials constructed through the ritual of labor. The works open the door to the exploration of being lost —experiencing a sense of near exile due to being driven off course in a blind pursuit of a passion.
My works develop with extensive restrictions, impediments and rules. The pallet is limited to objects that my forebearers used as part of their work and survival: wheat (farmers) and animal hides (tanners); as well as Plexiglas and resins (chemical plant workers); goldleaf (jewelers); and graphite (pencil plant). The materials are all symbolically loaded— personally and historically — and I leverage these inherent qualities such as the sexuality, violence and luxury of fur; the coldness, toxicity and modernity of plastic and resin; and the mythology, expansiveness and core cross-cultural nature of wheat. Each piece is reliant on intensive research and investigation as well as the development of new craft and production skills, that create pathways lined with a breadcrumb trail of clues, signs, sounds, smells and textures that arouse sensations of desire, hope, need and their ultimate fallout
While widely accepted as conceptual, my practice nonetheless is intimately tied to the production of objects — through harnessing skill, labor, repetition—as a means of experience and opening a discussion. This comes from what the Polish call “Praca Organiczna” (Organic Work), a means of developing work habits and keeping the skills, folklore and traditions alive to eventually take root in new places and new ways, opening up a confluence of time—past, present, and future— as the pieces develop, transform and grow.
Though a lush but reductive process— a maximal minimalism —I portray hopes and wants that that go wrong, the tension that arise, and the crush of the consequences of dreams fulfilled. The tableaux takes on multiple forms of expression from open fields of wheat and rye, as well as constructions utilizing animal furs, plastics and resin. They stage confrontations and moments of harmony between the idealistic and materialistic, via the binding of organic and man-made forms and materials constructed through the ritual of labor. The works open the door to the exploration of being lost —experiencing a sense of near exile due to being driven off course in a blind pursuit of a passion.
My works develop with extensive restrictions, impediments and rules. The pallet is limited to objects that my forebearers used as part of their work and survival: wheat (farmers) and animal hides (tanners); as well as Plexiglas and resins (chemical plant workers); goldleaf (jewelers); and graphite (pencil plant). The materials are all symbolically loaded— personally and historically — and I leverage these inherent qualities such as the sexuality, violence and luxury of fur; the coldness, toxicity and modernity of plastic and resin; and the mythology, expansiveness and core cross-cultural nature of wheat. Each piece is reliant on intensive research and investigation as well as the development of new craft and production skills, that create pathways lined with a breadcrumb trail of clues, signs, sounds, smells and textures that arouse sensations of desire, hope, need and their ultimate fallout
While widely accepted as conceptual, my practice nonetheless is intimately tied to the production of objects — through harnessing skill, labor, repetition—as a means of experience and opening a discussion. This comes from what the Polish call “Praca Organiczna” (Organic Work), a means of developing work habits and keeping the skills, folklore and traditions alive to eventually take root in new places and new ways, opening up a confluence of time—past, present, and future— as the pieces develop, transform and grow.
