Lethe at Pictura Gallery - installation images

‘Lethe’ is having a physical exhibition at Pictura Gallery in the Far Center for the Contemporary Arts in Bloomington from 2nd of April to 29th of May 2021.

This is a second presentation of this body of work in the United States, where the series first debuted (it won the PDN Magazine award in Personal Work category in 2017 and then subsequently was presented as a solo show in Blue Sky Gallery in Portland). We were planning the Pictura Gallery show to open a year ago and I’m grateful that we are finally able to do it in 2021 with members of public able to visit the gallery space (socially distanced).

Some words from Pictura’s Curatorial Statement of this two person show, my work in dialogue with Galina Kurlat’s images:

‘Anatomy of Loss brings together two photographers who work with non-traditional portraiture. Both artists manipulate the surfaces of their prints to explore degeneration and loss over time. In her project, Lethe, Sylwia Kowalczyk tackles the forfeiture of memory. In Soft Bodies, Galina Kurlat addresses a more physical kind of breakdown.
Kowalczyk’s fragmented figures are torn, layered, and rephotographed. She approaches memory as a layered thing, peeling off in bits and pieces. Slowly, the fragments are discarded and rearranged until a different version has formed. Each piece in Lethe is a unique offering of an idea - that of watching memory take its leave. An icy blue print shows a woman facing in on herself. A person in yellow appears in varying levels of focus, like a friend who becomes more distant by degrees over time. Another print shows a silver haired figure from behind; the chest has been hollowed out, and clouds fill the void. The figure exists but is gradually going to mist, perhaps losing access to their own mind or memory.
While Kowalczyk’s work explores the erasure of what’s in the mind, Kurlat’s work looks at the erosion of surfaces and the physical body. (…)

Installation images courtesy of Pictura Gallery and Chaz Mottinger