Phantom of Snake

7.-Phantom-of-..

Aleksander Błaszkiewicz’s work is unconventional, it derives from painting but is not its simple continuation. The artist graduated in 2018 from Dominik Lejman’s studio. In its programme, the studio is open to a broad creative experiment and distinctive setting of the students’ activities in their assumed ideological and semantic contexts. Aleksander was keen to use the opportunity to direct his interest towards areas which several decades ago would not even have been possible to be located within the domain of painting. He got involved in intermedia, creating works which are conglomerates of activities within the range of digital painting, performance and tattoo art.

The artist – who happened to be professionally youngest from among the ones I recommended for the competition – began his career during his diploma defence in 2018. The fact can hardly be neglected as his current activity is a direct continuation of that formally complex presentation. It is not its repetition but rather – let me make this point clear – its creative development and permanent processing.

Aleks is a “nomadic” artist, moving from place to place by means of a mobile studio – a sizeable car with a camper trailer which serves as his home and workplace. That is where his digital painting works originate, later transferred to the real world in the form of two-dimensional pictures, spatial openwork printouts and tattoos made on human bodies. For Aleksander, the human body is a space for creating painterly visions, similar to the surface of a canvas, yet remaining a radically different matter. The artist claims that “a situation arises in which the canvas already arrives with its own character, it speaks for itself. It is an established situation to which undisputedly one must subject as a tattooist or body painter.” What occasionally accompanies the ceremony of presentation of the one-dimensional or openwork objects-paintings or real-time body work is performative intervention. The performer, or performers, clad in latex clothes with inscriptions resembling snake skin, become sui generis “connectors” between the imaginary and actual reality, with the tattoo process in the forefront. Engaging in interaction with random and non-random audiences, they co-create a painterly multitoned piece with a changeable, circumstance-dependent scenario.

Is it still painting? Yes, it is obvious to me. It is also a notably exceptional attitude. Aleksander Błaszkiewicz consciously abandons canvas and paint but this does not stop him from being a painter. He has created his own, “open” formula of life and painting activity. It is interesting and valuable as it connects the hottest accents and needs of contemporary pop culture and is able to remain in constant interaction with it. By means of modern (digital painting) and traditional (tattoo) methods of generating images and performative action, his art actively enters everyday life with all its colour, displaying an unconventional vision of painting.

Jerzy Hejnowicz

www.instagram.com/aleksander.blaszkiewicz

Education

• 2016 – 2018 Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu, Wydział Malarstwa i Rysunku
• 2016 – 2017 Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu, Wydział Intermediów
• 2013 – 2016 Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu, Wydział Malarstwa i Rysunku

Exhibitions, projects

• 2019 Phantom of Snake- s01e02 – Sneaky Peeper of Love – performatywny tattoo-spot, Pawilon, Poznań, Polska
• 2019 Phantom of Snake – s01e01 – Movement – performatywny tattoo-spot, klub Poru-szenie, Poznań, Polska
• 2019 Phantom of Snake, działania performatywno-tatuatorskie, Poznań (Scena Robocza, Pawilon, Peryskop), Wolimierz (Festiwal Borderline), Białystok (Festiwal Up To Date), oraz „secret tattoo-spot” w Helsingborg, Halmstad, Ystad, Hoor, Polska/Szwecja
• 2019 Człowiek- wąż, wystawa grupowa, Galeria Jak Zapomnieć , Kraków, Polska
• 2018 Polemika Sztuki, 38 Konkurs im. Marii Dokowicz, MTP, Poznań, Polska
• 2018 Knaf, nominacja do konkursu, wystawa grupowa oraz działanie performatywne, Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań, Polska
• 2018 Najlepsze Dyplomy ASP 2018, nominacja do konkursu, oraz wystawa grupowa, działanie performatywne, Zbrojownia Sztuki, Gdańsk , Polska
• 2018 Working Title współpraca artystyczna, działanie społeczne, akcje performatywna, Malta Festival, Poznań
• 2018 Snakes, Dragons, Phantoms jednodniowe wydarzenie performatywne oraz wystawa indywidualna, Centrum Kultury Zamek. Poznań
• 2018 Nowy obraz / Nowe spojrzenie, wystawa pokonkursowa, Galeria BWA, Piła
• 2018 Glocca Morra, Oranges on fire part II reż. Izabela Sitarska, performance, Noc Muzeów, kino-teatr Apollo, Poznań
• 2018 Nowy obraz / Nowe spojrzenie, wystawa pokonkursowa, Słodownia Stary Browar, Poznań, Polska
• 2017 EuroAsia, wystawa grupowa i działanie performatywne, ZHdK, Zurich
• 2017 White Dog, wystawa indywidualna i działanie performatywne, Galeria Szewska 16, Poznań
• 2017 Dobrzy uczniowie wystawa grupowa, obiekt, Wydział Komunikacji Multimedialnej na Uniwersytecie Artystycznym, Poznań
• 2017 Monolit reż. Izabela Sitarska, działanie performatywne w ramach spektaklu, stare kino Olimpia, Poznań
• 2017 Ucieczka to fakt, przyczyny to domniemanie, instalacja, Żydowska 15, Poznań
• 2017 Belle vue noc muzeum Poznań, instalacja, Muzeum Sztuk Użytkowych, Poznań
• 2017 Nowy obraz/ Nowe spojrzenie, wystawa pokonkursowa, Galeria BWA Miejski Ośrodek Sztuki, Gorzów Wielkopolski
• 2017 Korespondencje 2, międzynarodowa wystawa grupowa, instalacja, Galeria Szewska 16, Poznań
• 2017 Nowy obraz / Nowe spojrzenie, wystawa pokonkursowa, Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań
• 2017 Art of journey, teamwork, Kathmandu Triennale, Katmandu, Nepal
• 2017 Upał, koncert, aranżacja przestrzeni, Schron, Poznań
• 2016 Dekonstrukcja zdarzenia, wystawa indywidualna Galeria MONA Inner Spaces, Poznań
• 2016 Otwarcie, wystawa grupowa, Nowa Gazownia, Poznań