Joanna Pawlik
Exhibition & Residency:
May 2 – June 30, 2011

Joanna’s explores the condition of her own, disabled body by testing the limits of transcending her own infirmity and observing her relations with those around her. She tries to understand the influence which the contact with others has on her by marking out her own place in the – not necessarily well disposed – world.

In her new project “Balance”, she sets out to break down this syndrome of intolerance, incomprehension and exclusion. She presents disabled women as independent, strong and courageous; she emphasizes their uniqueness and self-sufficiency. Her performances prove that identity does not have to be handicapped by a loss; on the contrary – it can benefit from a new lease of life, where one’s new value can be built through gaining acceptance.

Joanna’s works oscillates between the themes of the mechanisms of social exclusion and subjective emotional space. She focuses on examining her own feelings, on seeking compromise between being an artist and a mother. Her own experiences and inner life become the material which she uses as building blocks for her projects. Art becomes the platform for the lash between such notions as love, parting, loss, wrong, suffering, death and birth.