Touch Me Tenderly Tonight, 2021
fabric installation, base made of polypropylene sacks, neon yarn,recycled materials, cotton threads, reclaimed yarn, UV light
A site-specific installation realized in the space of a former hospital. It consists of carpet-like objects made from yarn sourced from unraveled sweaters and scarves, as well as fluorescent thread. At its core, the work explores the themes of organicity and decay—of bodies and architecture—manifesting in fluid, elastic forms. These create a specific relationship between whatis seemingly static and constructed, and what is bodily—subject to transformation and impermanence. The boundary between these categories proves to be shifting. I use artificial neon light in the work, which emphasizes abstract, plasmatic forms within the space, pushing figurative representations into a shadowy periphery. The human figure—shown from the back, anonymous, reduced to the volume of a body—gives way to shapeless traces of organic or spiritual presence, whose identity in the context of the hospital rooms becomes collective in nature, like the overlapping bodily energies embeddedin reclaimed textiles. The work was presented as part of the project I Is Someone Else curatedby Aleksandra Pietrzak (Independent Art Foundation) within the framework of the Open Eyes Art Festival in Kraków.
Touch Me Tenderly Tonight We feel pleasure and safety when our bodies find resonance in space. Skinis our primary means of communication with our surroundings, with the world—at the same time, it serves as effective protection. Touch is the sense of closeness, of tenderness; it brings together two initially foreign bodies, allowing for caress. But such symbiosis can also become a space for the parasite. This is why we so often choose distance, cautiously separating ourselves from the unknown, from the Other. /t o u c h m e/
– Aleksandra Pietrzak, project curator
– Aleksandra Pietrzak, project curator
