Sculpture – essences – Janusz Janczy

The series of four sculptures and the text Sculpture-Essences. A Path of Dialogue with Matter, created for my doctoral dissertation, constituted an attempt to summarize my previous experience in sculpture. The need to combine aspects important to me, to explore fundamental issues, questions about the essence of art, about disciplinary differences, and definitions, was realized in the form of a theoretical dissertation.

They are an attempt to juxtapose the imagination, shaped in a contemporary way, with a method of very primal sculptural operation, direct in matter (without previus designing and preparation in form of sketches).

These works address the relationship between the interior and exterior of the sculptural form, contrasting the external, organic surface with the deeper structures of sculpture, revealed through the use of complex cross-sections.

The juxtapositions and various configurations of these qualities results, among other things, from “dialog” between two aspects of creative process.

On the one hand, these are intuitive associations and the play of imagination; on the other, these are attempts to recognize the potential and character of matter. This “sculptural conversation” has a strong sense of acceptance of the arguments for maintaining the natural shape and structure of the tree, as well as moments of strong denial.

The process generates content, from which I select the most powerful associations. Therefore, it has a strong element of working with the subconscious. Without ultimately imposing an interpretation on the viewer, I signal my guiding thought. Hence, for example, I propose description: no title/Monastery, or simply leave the work untitled.