Pomnik pamięci wody 2019

Curator: I find this pencil drawing haunting, spectral, even. Editor: Ah, yes. This is Lech Jankowski's "Pomnik pami\u0119ci wody," dating to 2019. It's quite compelling in its abstraction. Tell me, what stands out for you materially? Curator: The textures are remarkable. Look at the layering, the hatching, and cross-hatching to conjure form and shadow with the stark contrast of values! I'm fascinated by how such a limited palette can suggest so much depth. It’s almost like observing the syntax of shade, and how meaning emerges from it. Editor: I am interested in the base—almost architectural in its simplicity. I cannot help but interpret it as a kind of stand for this form, which it carries but seems, also, to diminish, in a fascinating dynamic between monument and representation. Look, also, at those almost calligraphic repetitions; water's monument made from earth, pencil, and human toil. There is the material imprint of labor to produce this kind of work. Curator: The implied presence of the unseen informs the overall composition—almost an ode to absent presence, with those lines echoing the continuous flow of water. I can perceive the semiotic interplay between permanence and impermanence so clearly in Jankowski’s skillful hand. Editor: Right, I think that your emphasis on what cannot be perceived points toward where the drawing succeeds in challenging our conception of the monument, and ultimately our conception of memory as always made manifest in the solidity of earthly form. This artwork's abstraction invites inquiry, while its production invokes labor and transformation. Curator: Indeed. Jankowski offers us a drawing that demands slow and reflective consideration of both presence and absence, image and concept. Editor: I concur. An artwork constructed from rudimentary materials, revealing that labor may transcend the boundary of simple drawing through the creation of lasting conceptual and visual relationships.