Po·twór: Dyplom Licencjacki
This project was created as part of a graduation project at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, 2021
po·twór (mon·ster)
Bachelor’s Degree 2021
Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
Faculty of Media Art
Image Concept Studio
Instructors: Paweł Susid, Ph.D., and Irmina Staś, M.A.
„monster” This is a cycle of large-format painting objects that I created as my diploma thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 2021. The works revolve around the theme of the boundary between the human and the animal. I use utilitarian materials – fabrics intended for the production of clothing, bedding, and blankets – to give the works the character of skin, something that can cover the body. I treated these fabrics, stiffened them, and then covered them with painterly means of expression – patterns, colors, symbols – creating hybrid forms with dimensions close to the human body.
The film documents a diploma exhibition realized in a private apartment, which was transformed into an exhibition space for the duration of the presentation. The homey nature of the venue emphasizes the intimate and introspective dimension of the project, and the choice of this presentation format becomes a symbolic gesture – opening a private, physical, and psychological space to external gaze. The film not only records the objects but also captures the atmosphere of their creation and presence in everyday surroundings, highlighting the physicality of the works and their personal character.
The starting point for this work was my reflection on humans as beings separated from the animal world by layers of culture, society, and religion – which I called „shells.” My paintings depict the process of them being stripped away: the brutal gesture of tearing off skin becomes a symbol of penetrating deep into the human being, reaching primal emotions and characteristics. I show a liminal moment – the crossing between human and animal, which reveals instincts, aggression, and brutality as an integral part of our nature.
This cycle is deeply rooted in the experience of self-reflection and the process of self-discovery. While working on it, I evoked a state of isolation where one's own inner world becomes the sole cognitive stimulus. For me, the creative process was parallel to psychological vivisection—uncovering difficult emotions, internal conflicts, and sensitive areas of the psyche. The painted skins transformed into monsters, embodiments of unsettling truths about myself. Brutality became not only the theme but also the method of analysis.
The motif of skin is a central painterly sign for me – both as a visual form and as a metaphor. In the early works of the cycle, shapes resembling coverings peeled from the body dominate, while in later ones, animal, monstrous, and hybrid forms appear. The titular „creature” is the result of a symbolic process – a being created from the union of human and animal, an image of what is hidden beneath the cultural mask of civilization. The shapes take on open mouths, teeth, tense muscles – symbols of pain, wildness.
I shape the skin to resemble a human. I cover it with patterns, shapes, and colors that reflect the society created by humanity. I attempt to create an imitation of what humanity produces, using the mediums of painting, drawing, and printmaking. By combining fabrics, visual media, and symbols on the shape of an animal’s skin, I aim to achieve a visual quality that is defined as human. The themes of the patterns/representations in the works are an abstract exploration of what characterizes humanity visually—that is, what the animal world is incapable of creating (e.g., writing, purple fur). The skin is human; visually, its content does not resemble any animal; its outline is the shape of the beast, the “human-animal,” from which it was torn.
Overview of the artworks:
