Jadwiga Sawicka: Attracts and Repels

These are usually terse messages taken from the language of newspapers or the copy of advertisements and leaflets. They sound like press headlines yet are also intensely personal. Hand-painted letters clumsily fitted into the rectangle of the canvas, disregarding the rules of spelling and always set against a flesh-pink ground, give the statements an individual character. Alongside the texts appear realistic depictions of items of clothing. It is clear that they have been used and worn by someone, but now they are empty and impersonal, no more than traces. The eloquent absence of the body in these icons is replaced by the “corporeality” of the text paintings. The two complement one another and complete each other’s meanings.