Magdalen Chua — February Skies

Klub Proza, Wrocław8 March - 3 April March 2019 (Sa & Sun, 3-10pm)Vernissage: 7 March, 7pm with a performance by Aleksandra HabowskaCurated by Katarzyna Śmigielska in cooperation with Jagoda Malanin

The works in this exhibition explore ways of merging the mechanical and the fantastical, inspired by my encounter of Warsaw, both in person and through Magdalena Tulli’s Dreams and Stones (2004, translated from Polish by Bill Johnston). In Tulli’s novel/prose poem, a metropolis is destroyed and rebuilt as if undergoing a cycle of death and rebirth, generated through processes of automation and creation. Using these themes as starting points together with scenes and images encountered in Warsaw, the four paintings depict imaginary landscapes that allude to concrete structures and synthetic materials being a part of our natural environment. Hanging papier-mâché clouds appear like stone, playing with ideas of illusion and reality.

Upholstered (2019), tempera on greyboard, 70 x 50 cm
Tower (2019), rice paste and tempera on greyboard, 70 x 50 cm
Switch (2019), tempera on greyboard, 50 x 70 cm
Crane (2019), tempera on greyboard, 50 x 70 cm