To Wiels to see an exhibition, Sculpture Undone, of the work of Alina Szapocznikow (1926-1973). This is one of the first major exhibitions of her work outside her native Poland and it is well worth a visit. A survivor of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt, she went on to become, in her own words, ‘A sculptor experiencing the failure of a thwarted vocation.’ Convinced that ‘of all manifestations of the ephemeral, the human body is the most vulnerable,’ she set out ‘to praise the impermanence in the recesses of our bodies’ by making ‘awkward objects’. Body parts emerge from glutinous, resinous, undefinable organic slime and formless agglutinations. Casts of wrinkled bellies become scowling jowls. Lips and breasts hover, rendered alien through detachment from their context. The mechanical and the organic merge. Parts of her body and of her intimate wardrobe are frozen in polyester resin. Casts of her head become tumours. A life-size cast of her son floats ethereally. Flattened casts of body parts, glued to wooden boards, hint at the awfulness of past experiences. But there are also upbeat dreams, like her project to install an ice-skating rink in the crater of Vesuvius (never realised, of course). In the last room there is a short film of an interview with the artist herself. She was clearly shy but determined to get her point across. ‘All artists are exhibitionists,’ she says, fluttering her eyelids endearingly and looking down…
Leave a Reply