Ostatnia ucieczka grzebieni 2019

Curator: We’re now standing before Lech Jankowski’s 2019 pencil drawing, "Ostatnia ucieczka grzebieni" or "The Last Escape of Combs". What's your immediate take on this? Editor: It's surprisingly unsettling for what appears to be a simple pencil sketch. The stark contrast between light and shadow creates a rather bleak, almost oppressive atmosphere. Curator: Right, bleakness and oppression. I find it resonates with themes of displacement and the loss of identity markers, a concept frequently interrogated within post-communist Polish art, responding to socio-political upheavals, perhaps reflecting a sense of being uprooted. Editor: Interesting interpretation. My focus went immediately to the combs themselves—are they meant to evoke something specific? Their crude depiction draws attention to the process and the material: graphite on paper, the labor of creating this… estrangement. Curator: I read their abstraction as a potent symbol, standing in for societal structures that dictate conformity, particularly related to gender and identity expectations. Perhaps their "escape" represents resistance against these enforced roles? Editor: Maybe, but I see the repetition more as mirroring mass production. The subtle variations hint at handmade labor, resisting perfect uniformity yet destined for mass consumption. What are these "combs" producing and for whom? Are they being exploited, rendered functionless, or simply broken by overuse? Curator: Your perspective highlights the impact of capitalist systems on even the most quotidian objects. That links to conversations around craft versus industrial manufacture. It underscores the devaluing of traditional skills under consumerism. Are these merely defunct and discarded tools from daily life? Editor: Precisely, rendered nearly obsolete. It questions the value placed on skill and functionality in our throwaway society, highlighting the material lifespan of objects, as they transition from active purpose to residual waste. Even the artistry seems purposefully unpolished to amplify this theme. Curator: I appreciate that. It forces us to consider the narratives we assign value to and what systems we perpetuate when we discard not just objects but the histories attached to them. Editor: Ultimately, this drawing prompted me to reconsider our relationship with the objects we use and the often-invisible labor embedded within them. Curator: For me, it evokes a haunting commentary on the enduring quest for individual expression against societal constraints and cultural alienation.