KASIA OLEŚKIEWICZ

visual artist & researcher

UNTAMED

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In the series Untamed (2023/2024) I explore topics of animality – as a bridge between human and nonhuman. I look for a human - and my own, personal - identity as an animal. It becomes a clue, a hint towards shamelessness, a come-back to a true self, outside of social norms, gender roles, expectations, interpretations, male gaze. In this project, through creating hybrid forms, I identify myself with the animal, with more than human, with the Other – finding plurality, entanglement of our beings and identities, the constellations of interdependency – “for understanding a non-individualist account of equality”. (Judith Butler)This serries consists of visual artworks, objects and images, and theory – the “Untamed” independent publication, which is an associative image-essay.

SELECTED WORKS FROM THE SERIES

Broken Beasts - exhibition view, Schlachthof Kulturzentrum, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, 2024

Broken Beasts
Site-specific installation containing artwork from the Untamed series - sculptures, prints, drawings, paintings, materials gathered during the working process and dim lightening
Mixed media
Approx. 250x500x200 cm
2024
Created for and presented at Schlachthof Kulturzentrum - a former slaughterhouse space
Last image photo credits: Tim Rod

Untamed - associative image-essay
Artist's book/independent publication
24x25x5 cm
2024

Beast Reliquary
Wood, fur (gathered from waste)
17x7x5 cm
2024

Beast no. 2 (diptych)
Metal, textiles, latex, other
Approx. 114x26x12 cm & 91x20x18 cm
2024

Beast no. 3
Textiles, modelling clay, thread, other
Approx. 200x15x5 cm
2024

Beast no. 1
Metal, textiles, latex, other
Approx. 140x200x45 cm
2023/2024

Untitled (No. 1 from Untamed)
Mixed media (wood, wire, modelling clay, paint, textiles, other
24x14x13,5 cm
2023

Untitled (No. 2 from Untamed)
Mixed media (wood, wire, modelling clay, paint, textiles, other
47x33x20 cm
2023

Untitled (No. 3 from Untamed)
Mixed media (wood, wire, modelling clay, paint, other
13x23,5x10 cm
2023

Untitled (No. 4 from Untamed)
Mixed media (wood, wire, modelling clay, paint, paper tape, other
13x13x13 cm
2023

Untitled (No. 5 from Untamed)
Mixed media (wood, wire, modelling clay, textiles, paint, other
10x10x20 cm
2023

Untitled (No. 6 from Untamed)
Mixed media (wood, wire, modelling clay, textiles, paint, other
16x31x29 cm
2023

Untitled (from Untamed)
Oil on cardboard
20x30 cm
2024

Untitled (from Untamed)
Oil on cardboard
30x15 cm
2024

Untitled (from Untamed)
Oil on paper
Dimensions variable
2024

Untitled (from Untamed)
Pen, crayon
Dimensions variable
2024

Untitled (from Untamed)
Pen
Dimensions variable
2024

Untitled (from Untamed)
Pen, crayon
Dimensions variable
2024

Untitled (from Untamed)
Pen
Dimensions variable
2024

From Untamed - prints on metal
UV print, aluminium
Dimensions variable
2024

From Untamed - early sculptures
Studio views
2023/2024

From the studio and working process, Bern, Switzerland, 2024

Broken Beasts - exhibition/installation presenting the works from Untamed
(last image photo credits: Tim Rod)

Many thanks to Tine Melzer for all the invaluable talks about this research.

Bibliography:
Adams C. J., The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory (20th Anniversary Edition), The Continuum International Publishing Group, London/New York 2010
A Journey Through Vulnerability. Mongolia Pavilon at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, artist: Munkhtsetseg Jalkhaajav, curator: Gantuya Badamgarav – exhibition catalogue
Alighieri D., Commedia, Letteratura italiana Einaudi, Mondadori, Milan 1966-67
Alighieri D., Divine Comedy, tr. H. W. Longfellow, Creative Commons, 2008
Beauvoir S., The Second Sex, Vintage Books, New York 2011
Butler J., The Force of Nonviolence: En Ethico-Political Bind, Verso, London/New York 2020
Collins J., Sculpture Today, Phaidon Press Limited, New York 2007
Derrida J., The Animal That Therefore I Am, eds. M. Mallet, tłum. D. Wills, Fordham University Press, New York 2008
Fàbregas E., Devouring Lovers, eds. S. Bardaouil and T. Fellrath, SilvanaEditoriale, Berlin 2023
Fiddes N., Meat: A Natural Symbol, Routledge, London 1991
Foucault M., Discipline and Punish. The Birth of The Prison, Vintage Books, New York 1995
Harari Y. N., foreward to Animal Liberation by P. Singer, Marginesy, Warsaw 2018
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hooks b., All About Love: New Visions, William Morrow, New York 2000
Inferno at Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome 2022; curators: Jean Clair, Laura Bossi, Elcograf S.p.A., Verona 2021 – exhibition catalogue
Irigaray L., This Sex Which Is Not One, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1985
Jameson F., Utopia as Method or the Uses of the Future, in: Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility, eds.
M.D. Gordin, H. Tilley, G. Prakash, US: Princeton University Press, Princeton 2010
Koťátková E., Janečková H., Animal Touch, ArtMap, Prague 2021
Kristeva J., Powers of Horror. An Essay on Abjection, Columbia University Press, New York 1982
Lafarge D., We Eat Each Other Up, in: Devouring Lovers by Eva Fàbregas, eds. S. Bardaouil and T. Fellrath, SilvanaEditoriale, Berlin 2023
Lorde A., Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, in: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, Crossing Press, New York 1984
Mello A., Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, Center for Spiritual Exchange, Ebook Edition 2020
Patterson C., Eternal Trebinka, Lantern Books, New York 2002
Patterson C., Wieczna Treblinka, tr. R. Rupowski, Vega!POL, Opole 2003
Rosen Kaplan L., foreward to Eternal Treblinka by C. Patterson, Lantern Books, New York 2002
Singer P., Animal Liberation, Open Road Integrated Media, New York 2015
Singer P., Wyzwolenie Zwierząt, Marginesy, Warsaw 2018
Sławek T., Śladem zwierząt. O dochodzeniu do siebie, Fundacja Terytoria Książki, Gdańsk 2020
Solnit R., Men Explain Things to Me, Haymarket Books, Chicago/Illinois 2014
Sontag S., On Photography, Rosetta Books, New York 2005
Taylor S., Beasts of Burden. Animal and Disability Liberation (Bydlęce Brzemię. Wyzwolenie ludzi z niepełnosprawnością i zwierząt), Filtry, Warsaw 2021
The Animal Within. Creatures in (and outside) the mumok Collection, eds. by Manuela Ammer and Ulrike Muller – exhibition catalogue, mumok, Vienna 2022/23
Tokarczuk O., The Tender Narrator (Czuły Narrator), Wydawnictwo Literackie, Cracow 2020
Weil S., La Connaissance surnaturelle, Gallimard, Paris 1950
Zaraska M., Mięsoholicy. 2,5 miliona lat mięsożernej obsesji człowieka, Czarna Owca, Warsaw 2017
Zuboff S., The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, PublicAffairs, New York 2019

RELATED WORKS

Works exploring the topics of un(taming)

Owner Burials
Pen on paper
From sketchbook
2023

Self-portrait as a beast
Pen on paper
From sketchbook
2023

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Instagram: @kasia_oleskiewicz
Email: [email protected]

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