My artistic practice stems from an acceptance of transience. I harness my hyperactivity and calm my inner extremes, creating balanced, participatory art that influences the quality of my personal and social life. My reflections are based on observations that I analyze in a broader, global context, trying to universalize them as a platform for shared experiences. I create a kind of participatory art_chronicles that are a testimony to the era, but also give me the opportunity to get to know myself better. I care about activities that make a meaningful contribution to improving the quality of life, even if they are carried out on a micro scale around me.
Katarzyna Łyszkowska (Łyszka) is a Polish interdisciplinary artist. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where she currently works at the Department of Drawing, and a member of the Toruń City Revitalization Council. She's a grant holder of the culture departments and international scientific institutions as Driving Urban Transitions – Sustainable future for cities (UE), Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e. V., Goethe-Institut,(DE), Windgate Foundation (USA), Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, Adam Mickiewicz Institute (PL). Her practice encompasses a wide range of sustainable works from pencil, ink, and silverpoint on wood to objects made of paper and biodegradable materials, as well as found objects and recycled materials. Photography, digital techniques and sound recordings expand the narrative of her work, offering the possibility of both objective documentation and subjective experimentation.
Photo: Karol Szymborski
https://katarzynalyszkowska.com/
Instagram: @lysz.ka
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The “into the fields” residency gave me personal space to carefully experience my family’s grief and accept the passing of time in the context of the constant transformation of nature. On the other hand, the trend in social media of denying the process of aging, uselessness, slowing down, and physical disability definitely distances us and contradicts the laws of nature. This dichotomous experience became the pretext for creating the rePlant Project – objects made from what has been rejected by both nature and technological progress. Old, dry, decaying branches moved me and captivated me with the beauty of the traces of passing time left on them. In a similar way, I was moved by rusty parts of broken devices abandoned in the field, which were once designed to improve our human life. The trend of staying beautiful, healthy, and active for as long as possible begins innocently with improving one’s appearance, working on one’s body, and figure. We cling to the promise of a long life in good health, and with age, we interfere more and more with the biological mechanisms of the body. We transplant, implant, and replace parts of our bodies as if we were in a car repair workshop. Frighteningly, medically unnecessary procedures, driven by vanity and the economics of beauty, lead to physical impairment and are becoming widely accepted as the canon.
