NATASZA NIEDZIÓŁKA

How can a musical principal be applied to visual art, and what correspondences and interrelations will be the result? Niedziółka borrows the term ‘call and response’ as a through line for her presentation. Call and response describes a form of interaction between two sides —for example, between singers and other musicians—or with the audience. The artist takes this idea of a pattern of communication and its echo and transfers it to the exhibition situation—to an exchange that evolves between the pictures, visitors, and artist that can also be observed between the individual pieces.

When we look at Niedziółka’s works, which oscillate between painting, drawing, and textile art, we think about rhythm and musical notations as well as patterns and structures. Using a colored pen, she draws irregular, horizontal lines between which she traces even finer lines applied with embroidery thread and vintage silk. The individual pictures are based on hues of color in beige-white, blue, or red, the nuances of which lend them rhythm. All the colour fields and shapes merge into a unity to structure the canvas and generate great liveliness. They animate the pictures and create a ‘voice’ that can be found echoing in the different works. The title of the series, Zero, is a reference to the artist group called Zero, which was founded in Düsseldorf in 1958, and their principles of a new beginning and a reduced aesthetics in art. Niedziółka integrates these paradigms into her own works, into her aesthetics, and into her handling of the material. For her, these pictures are about time in general, and about time in space in particular. According to the artist, they concern ‘dedicating yourself to something, allowing this, and letting it go. It’s a very personal and intimate work that’s not meant to be sustained by sentimentality, however.’

For the show, Niedziółka also added a single work from her At One series. This piece, while also related to her Zero series in terms of form, reveals different thematic content. Here, the idea of a state of accordance and balance is the main focus. The artist is interested in the great difference in her approach to this work as compared to her Zero series. ‘At One was planned and even ‘designed,’ while Zero challenges time and the things that happen,’ she says.