Lady's Smock. Wgląd II

Teresa Murak

  • type of object: photography
  • date: 1975
  • material/technique: photography
  • dimensions: 200 x 60 cm
  • inventory No.: R-238
  • image licensed under: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Teresa Murak first sowed garden cress in 1972. At Easter time, it is sowed on, among others, a piece of cellulose wadding, and its rapid growth symbolises the ability of nature to renew itself and bloom in springtime. During the performance Lady’s Smock (a common name of a wild variety of cress) at the Labirynt Gallery in 1975, the artist and the plants entered into a mutual sensual relation. Placed on a wet shirt, the seeds swelled, sprouted, and after a few hours began to grow under the influence of the woman’s body warmth. The impermanent result of the action was part of the postulate of identifying life — in this case the vegetation of a plant — with the creative process, formulated by the neo-avant-garde art of the 1970s. At the same time, this and other pieces by Murak fit into the circle of Judeo-Christian and pagan references that are important to her. As curator Sebastian Cichocki wrote, ‘The action of seed sowing becomes a meditation or a prayer. The individual sprouting plants are letters, creating a puzzling, unreadable, constantly falling apart and mutating text inscribed in the urban tissue. The action of writing on the earth using seeds is for the artist an act of faith, a gift, and a submission to the laws of nature and higher forces’.

Ewa Skolimowska, translated by Paulina Bożek

Other works by artist in the Zachęta collection

  • Zdjęcie pracy Form
    FormTeresa Murak1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy from the series Sun
    from the series SunTeresa Murak1998
  • Zdjęcie pracy from the series Sun
    from the series SunTeresa Murak1998
  • Zdjęcie pracy Lady's Smock. Wgląd I
    Lady's Smock. Wgląd ITeresa Murak1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy Lady's Smock. Wgląd III
    Lady's Smock. Wgląd IIITeresa Murak1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy Lady's Smock. Wgląd IV
    Lady's Smock. Wgląd IVTeresa Murak1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy Lady's Smock. Wgląd V
    Lady's Smock. Wgląd VTeresa Murak1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy Lady's Smock. Wgląd VI
    Lady's Smock. Wgląd VITeresa Murak1975
  • Zdjęcie pracy Paper with Seeds I
    Paper with Seeds ITeresa Murak1992
  • Zdjęcie pracy Paper with Seeds II
    Paper with Seeds IITeresa Murak1992
  • Zdjęcie pracy Paper with Seeds III
    Paper with Seeds IIITeresa Murak1992
  • Zdjęcie pracy Paper with Seeds IV
    Paper with Seeds IVTeresa Murak1992

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