Edyta OLSZEWSKA (1998), Passio VIII; 2023

Oil, canvas; 100 x 100 cm
Signed, dated, and described on the back: Edyta Olszewska/ Passio VIII/ 2023
Work presented at the individual exhibition "ŻAR" at Art Agenda NOVA, 2023

The tendency to combine elements of so-called high and low culture in Edyta Olszewska's work is not limited to the juxtaposition of religious and pornographic images. She often makes sketches for her paintings in churches. Her models are the creations of provincial, nameless artists, in which motifs known from the works of great masters are often vulgarized and clumsy. The symbols - simplified and contoured, often resemble tattoos. It's probably no coincidence that the motifs of the burning heart, "naked baby" and dragons are part of the permanent repertoire of decorating the bodies of prisoners or sailors. These cultural clichés are part of contemporary visual culture, stereotypes and references. They are also an interesting testimony to the wandering and transformation of meanings. Figures of saints and harlots, knights and dragons certainly belong to cultural topos. Their power is based on the belief that the world is constructed around oppositions, and that man must take sides representing conflicting values. Olszewska undermines the basis of the dualistic worldview by highlighting cultural dissonances and incompatibilities. She buries the gap between sublimation and brutalization of bodily experience. In the context of contemporary culture wars, in which the body, especially the female body, becomes a battlefield anew, and the cultural construction of masculinity radicalizes or disintegrates, Edyta Olszewska's work touches on themes of fundamental importance.