Cramped, 2025
neon yarn, natural and synthetic fibers, recycled yarn 150 x 200 cm
A rug measuring 3 m²—the minimum legal size of a prison cell in Poland—becomes a map of absence: of bodies removed out of sight, of lives administratively erased. I cut out holes for essential objects—a toilet, a chair, a table. These empty spaces become traces of human presence. Around them, I arrange flower beds—like urban flower patches sprouting from scraps of land—using leftover yarn found in the studio. The work addresses living conditions of marginalized groups—prisonersor ethnic minorities—or, “insignificant people”, as Agnieszka Dauksza writes.The flower compositions reference my family’s homeland: resettled Lemko territories, abandoned gardens, sites of memory gradually reclaimedby nature. I am interested in the material manifestations of erasure and invisibilisation – of groups and individuals. In my work, nature is ambivalent: it takes over what is abandoned, yet at the same time reveals what is invisible.
