Afrykańska gimnastyka znikania 2019

Curator: Lech Jankowski’s “Afrykańska gimnastyka znikania,” or “African Gymnastics of Disappearance,” crafted in 2019. Graphite and charcoal on what looks like perhaps a slightly textured paper. What’s your initial impression? Editor: Haunting, really. It’s as if whatever’s depicted is actively dissolving, fading away like a charcoal memory. It almost has a spectral presence, like something on the verge of vanishing entirely. Curator: Note the deliberate line work. It is not a simple sketch; consider the physical process itself. The repeated, almost frenzied application of graphite and charcoal implies a kind of material performance, right? Editor: Right. Those figures almost draped in striations. They feel ephemeral, as though they could slip between our fingers like smoke if we tried to touch them. It almost speaks to the unreliability of memory, like these are recollections just beyond our grasp. Curator: And consider the artist’s title – African Gymnastics of Disappearance. The socio-political implications are striking; the allusion to a culture seemingly erased, subsumed maybe through colonialism, forced assimilation, maybe a direct erasure of physical bodies. What is shown becomes as important as what is actively fading from the image. Editor: Exactly. You nailed it. The figures themselves look almost ceremonial in their postures, though strained, strained like acrobats balancing in a dying dream, or in front of the inevitable. They almost represent what has been erased for us to stand on today. Like some ghostly vestige we cannot ignore but choose to gloss over or turn from the light. Curator: There is also a quiet dialogue present on ideas of value. Drawing materials – charcoal and graphite, paper are accessible, abundant even, they are a signifier towards themes of consumption and accessibility. Editor: It does, doesn't it? Well, after delving a little deeper with you into this 'disappearing act', my mind's firing on all cylinders. Lech Yankowski's conjured a visual riddle and I love his charcoal disappearing acts; what a beautiful ghost he has rendered for us to behold. Curator: Agreed. “African Gymnastics of Disappearance” is a deceptively simple composition, a visual poem wrought from graphite, charcoal, and powerful undercurrents of social commentary and somber reflection. Thank you for joining me today to discover what lies below its textured layers.