TOMASZ BIELAK Subimago

Opening: 27.01.2012, opening hour: 18.00

Open until: 17.02.2012

SUBIMAGO – the first, after emerging from water, winged form of a mayfly (lac. Ephemeroptera), which then moults into of full adult form called IMAGO.

Fragments of a text by: Piotr Pękala
EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN END OF THE WORLD.

This sentence is inscribed on one of the works we can see at the SUBIMAGO exhibition. It is accompanied by a simple illustration, characteristic of its author. We see a sketch of two men facing each other standing on cubes that represent the edge of a roof, looking into the precipice opening between them. This space is filled with a levitating sing “END OF THE WORLD”. For fear of emptiness he fills in its invisible SUBstance.

Although it’s hard to call the image of reality that emerges from the monochromatic works by Tomasz Bielak an optimistic one, the artist avoids moralizing. He is rather trying to create a SUBjective narration on a society that has long ceased to react to the medication prescribed by conservative doctors. People DO NOT BELIEVE that a little amount of pharmacological SUBstance can heal the nausea shared by the community, because this community is now right in between the moment of jumping off the edge of the roof and falling down on the concrete sidewalk. To put it simply, it is in the stage of SUBIMAGO. Paradoxically the fall, the movement “downward” is the moment of setting oneself free through creation. This “suicide” knows that the end is coming closer with every second, so he can let himself go and make a couple of inappropriate acrobatics. It’s hard not to get the impression that the square-shaped formats put into one bag could form something like an emergency parachute. It will not take back the decision that has been made, it may, however, if opened in time, slow down the increasing speed of the arrival of the brutally real asphalt.

A man in Bielak’s art is a person that HESITATES. It is man on the edge, looking at the reality that surrounds him. Before he jumps, he will examine his conscience. He is used to the fact that receiving absolution is as easy as pressing the delete button on a computer keyboard; therefore, he feels no guilt and wonders (like Darwin) if it ever existed.

This emptiness, however, does not put him in the mood to create visions that could be presented in bright colours. He does not paint the world yellow and blue nor decorates it with a golden rainbow. He observes the world with cool eyes of a true sceptic.