a project for the exhibition, about Alice in the Wonderland and idea of cutting heads, "Madness - Alice plays hopscotch". draft only:
Exhibition Title : Madness. Alice plays hopscotch Time- One week. As the Mad Hatter we won't be killing time. Artists (only the idea): Artists: Olga Lewicka, Ola Bell, David Cushway, Anna Gankell, Katarzyna Widmańska, Alison Brady, Isabelle Wenzel, Carsten Holler, Lisa Stansbile, Anna Bodnar, Piotr Bosacki, Vladimir Clavijo Telepnev, Łukasz Jastrubczyk. Madness is THE issue in Alice in Wonderland. Examples? Cheshire cat doing things opposite, "mad" Hatter killing time and blind fury of the Queen of Hearts, resulting in “cutted” heads. Readers meet madness in the novel at every turn. Inside it there is represented a limitlessness fantasy and its freedom of the reason, described - madness. Lack of sense (and logic) in actions of most inhabitants of Wonderland is only a nonsense, a wonderful lack of reason. Never-lasting tea party, killing the time by Hatter, the illogic of language and relationship between sense, nonsense and words, not good and not bad characters inside the story, all those things are defying normalcy in every way. Madness screams from yellow eyes of the cat and red hearts of the queen, from the act of killing time and cliche wisdom of some characters simply degenerating into nonsense. The act of the Queen of "cutting head" seems to be pointless... all of them already have lost their heads. "We are all mad here. I am mad. You are mad" [...] "You must be (mad)" - said the cat - "or you wouldn't have come here". The exhibition will be quite mad. Telling the story of madness (literally by means of losing head), but not strictly from book. There will be some parts, invoking directly to the “Alice in Wonderland”, like song from the Disney movie (1951) "I am odd", or clip with Red Queen from Tim Burton movie (2010) screaming "off with his head!" There maybe will find itself as well a photography from Vladimir Clavijo, depicting Alice and White Rabbit touching themselves with their noses, but mostly there will be art works of others, inspired by the story. Artworks of artists hungry of the limitlessness fantasy. Some words' games as well. Like The Beatles clip "I am the Walrus", where John Lennon has thrown together nonsense lyrics, inspiration, acid and Yoko Ono, and lecture of Lewis. At the end. Or maybe it should be said, at the beginning, the story will have two narratives, first will include the "madness", and the second one will be to read by respecting (respecting is a BIG word in world of madness) the rule of game - Hopscotch. It will be only about literal losing the head and different reasons of this unpleasant thing (punishment?) Alice in “Through the Looking-Glass. And What Alice Found There” plays chess but I, inspired by book “Hopscotch” by Julio Cortazar and madness, wearing pink pijamas, decided to change the game and to play with two different stories. The first of them told linearly is a story of madness more or less caused by lecture of Alice; second, created by jumps from number […] to […] tells the story of cutting head (insanity of women, caused by it lack). The story of the cutting heads will be described with the titles, created for the need of exhibition, “portmanteau”, connecting meaning of lack of head with the meaning of the situation caused by this fact. Like the meeting of two random narrations coming together to create a whole new relevance. This will be the theme of the exhibition. After the head issue, I had lot of head inspirations :). Creepy song - http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=cgqOSCgc8xc and a photo. I think I have an idea for my exhibition… will be hard. Idea is born; it will have a double narration. As I am mostly in Wonderland now, it will be around this issue. (Fragment of letter to a friend Enrico Minardi, 21st December, 2011) This exhibition is a result of my search for the head. Alice plays hopscotch. “Off with her head!” used to scream Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” and even if she has not “tasted” a head of Alice, the idea of punishing by cutting the head was an inspiration for this exhibition concept. The story of Alice is only an excuse for leaving the world of reality and jumping into the dreams, the kingdom of solipsists. Between a story of Alice presented by different artists, showing how she is interpreted by them, (as a dreamer), I want to present the world I have created by myself. Meeting on my way surrealists with their idea of ideal woman, as an object only to see - cut, often without head, I have decided to find out why some of contemporary artists are still deciding to “steal” the heads of women. Lacan’s theory of subjectivity, derived from Freud’s concepts of narcissism and the “specular” ego left Woman in the position of signifier for the male other, her subjectivity (or “femininity”) determined by the discourse of patriarchy.- woman was seen as other.1 Surrealists believed that woman is an empty object (a flesh) always waiting for a man to create her identity. Their women were a “dolls” without heads or faces (which was equal with their lack of identity), an easy objects of idealistic and egocentric “amour fou” (mad love). More important, they were passive, not expecting. Without their eyes they were an ideal object of observation, not able to “meet” the viewer. The ideal situation (dream) would be placing here photography of Adolph de Meyer “Dance Study” (ca 1912). As the head is not cut but covered, it would be showing different ways of “loosing” the head. Why surrealists were portraying women without head? They “believed” (in their art concept), that woman is a flesh (body) – a nidus of bliss and it was the man, who only could have the head – a place, where thoughts were born. For my exhibition I have chosen women who deprived their models (mostly women) of head. The exhibition will start with the song of Cheshire cat “I am odd” from Disney movie “Alice in Wonderland” [1] and his quote about madness in the Wonderland. Soon after will be hanging an article of an artist Olga Lewicka, “How to deal with the cat”, describing how the cat can be reduced and twisted around, which in reality is a metaphor of the discourse about the differences between the cynicism and irony [2]. To not go far from the cat's issue, we will stop for a while on three (two) photographs of Ola Bell, who is depicting herself without the head (or with covered head) with her cats in the space looking alike Wonderland [3]. As in one photography artist invokes to the Tea Party, the next work will be David Cushway. In his film Fragments (Teapot) he is exploring the breaking and fracturing of ceramic objects [4]. Fragmentation is a part of the photography by Anna Gaskell “Alice in Wonderland”, where the model, wearing like Alice is hanging on the “frame”, as we are not able to see her head, which was cutted [5]. The Rabbit has run away, leaving a fragment of the song “when logic and proportion/ have fallen sloppy dead/ and the White Knight is talking backwards/ and the Red Queen's “off with hear head!”/ remember what the dormouse said;/ feed YOUR HEAD” (Jefferson Airplane). As cutting head was an issue in the book of Caroll, after the Gaskell will be hanging a clip from Tim Burton film about Alice (2010), when Red Queen is screaming “off with his head!” [6]. Which will start a femininity path, obsessed with cutting heads; close to the surrealism photographs by Alison Brady (two), who in her photography manipulate the everyday of the woman into the surreal, stimulating unconscious emotions, desires, sexual compulsions between real and fantasized... And showing madness – lack of the head, feelings of anxiety and displacement and lost of the identity. „Cutted” head in her artworks depicts unknown and uncomfortable situation, where woman, placed between sensual and horrific seems to be nothing more than body to watch, not having the possibility of Alice to change the size and cover totally, caught always in the desperate moment of enlightenment, that there is no place to hide [7]. Next will be Isabelle Wenzel, who in “Absurd office scenes” is placing women in the most impossible positions. As well here faces don’t matter – Wenzel covers the head, turning female body into an object, giving the viewer a disquieting feeling. Fascinated with minimal and functional movements of the people, working inside the office space, she is creating totally absurd situations. Not able to put the mask of the silence she is providing inside the room chaos and pointless movements. Her women are portrayed mostly upside down, always with covered head – they are becoming useless automatic machines or furniture [8]. At this point, where everything seems to be upside down it would be great to show the installation of Carsten Holler “Upside down mushroom room” [9]. And a video of Lisa Stansbile “The Cloud Collector”, about collected on the sky clouds [10]. Loosing head issue will finish with the photography of Anna Bodnar “Face off”, depicting two bended women, without faces, depicting the lack of hope [11]. But to not make the exhibition too sad and still keeping it mad the next will be the video clip of the Beatles, “I am The Walrus” - nonsense composition of English words [12]. At the end for goodby, in the photography of the Vladimir Clavijo Telepnev Alice will be kissing the White Rabitt [13], and the photography of Łukasz Jastrubczak will be showing his installation, balloons taking up two BIG words “THE END” [14]. 1 Whitney Chadwick (ed.). Mirror Images. Women, Surrealism, and Self-representation. Massachusetts 1998. p. 8
a project for the exhibition, about Alice in the Wonderland and idea of cutting heads, "Madness - Alice plays hopscotch". draft only:
Exhibition Title : Madness. Alice plays hopscotch Time- One week. As the Mad Hatter we won't be killing time. Artists (only the idea): Artists: Olga Lewicka, Ola Bell, David Cushway, Anna Gankell, Katarzyna Widmańska, Alison Brady, Isabelle Wenzel, Carsten Holler, Lisa Stansbile, Anna Bodnar, Piotr Bosacki, Vladimir Clavijo Telepnev, Łukasz Jastrubczyk. Madness is THE issue in Alice in Wonderland. Examples? Cheshire cat doing things opposite, "mad" Hatter killing time and blind fury of the Queen of Hearts, resulting in “cutted” heads. Readers meet madness in the novel at every turn. Inside it there is represented a limitlessness fantasy and its freedom of the reason, described - madness. Lack of sense (and logic) in actions of most inhabitants of Wonderland is only a nonsense, a wonderful lack of reason. Never-lasting tea party, killing the time by Hatter, the illogic of language and relationship between sense, nonsense and words, not good and not bad characters inside the story, all those things are defying normalcy in every way. Madness screams from yellow eyes of the cat and red hearts of the queen, from the act of killing time and cliche wisdom of some characters simply degenerating into nonsense. The act of the Queen of "cutting head" seems to be pointless... all of them already have lost their heads. "We are all mad here. I am mad. You are mad" [...] "You must be (mad)" - said the cat - "or you wouldn't have come here". The exhibition will be quite mad. Telling the story of madness (literally by means of losing head), but not strictly from book. There will be some parts, invoking directly to the “Alice in Wonderland”, like song from the Disney movie (1951) "I am odd", or clip with Red Queen from Tim Burton movie (2010) screaming "off with his head!" There maybe will find itself as well a photography from Vladimir Clavijo, depicting Alice and White Rabbit touching themselves with their noses, but mostly there will be art works of others, inspired by the story. Artworks of artists hungry of the limitlessness fantasy. Some words' games as well. Like The Beatles clip "I am the Walrus", where John Lennon has thrown together nonsense lyrics, inspiration, acid and Yoko Ono, and lecture of Lewis. At the end. Or maybe it should be said, at the beginning, the story will have two narratives, first will include the "madness", and the second one will be to read by respecting (respecting is a BIG word in world of madness) the rule of game - Hopscotch. It will be only about literal losing the head and different reasons of this unpleasant thing (punishment?) Alice in “Through the Looking-Glass. And What Alice Found There” plays chess but I, inspired by book “Hopscotch” by Julio Cortazar and madness, wearing pink pijamas, decided to change the game and to play with two different stories. The first of them told linearly is a story of madness more or less caused by lecture of Alice; second, created by jumps from number […] to […] tells the story of cutting head (insanity of women, caused by it lack). The story of the cutting heads will be described with the titles, created for the need of exhibition, “portmanteau”, connecting meaning of lack of head with the meaning of the situation caused by this fact. Like the meeting of two random narrations coming together to create a whole new relevance. This will be the theme of the exhibition. After the head issue, I had lot of head inspirations :). Creepy song - http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=cgqOSCgc8xc and a photo. I think I have an idea for my exhibition… will be hard. Idea is born; it will have a double narration. As I am mostly in Wonderland now, it will be around this issue. (Fragment of letter to a friend Enrico Minardi, 21st December, 2011) This exhibition is a result of my search for the head. Alice plays hopscotch. “Off with her head!” used to scream Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” and even if she has not “tasted” a head of Alice, the idea of punishing by cutting the head was an inspiration for this exhibition concept. The story of Alice is only an excuse for leaving the world of reality and jumping into the dreams, the kingdom of solipsists. Between a story of Alice presented by different artists, showing how she is interpreted by them, (as a dreamer), I want to present the world I have created by myself. Meeting on my way surrealists with their idea of ideal woman, as an object only to see - cut, often without head, I have decided to find out why some of contemporary artists are still deciding to “steal” the heads of women. Lacan’s theory of subjectivity, derived from Freud’s concepts of narcissism and the “specular” ego left Woman in the position of signifier for the male other, her subjectivity (or “femininity”) determined by the discourse of patriarchy.- woman was seen as other.1 Surrealists believed that woman is an empty object (a flesh) always waiting for a man to create her identity. Their women were a “dolls” without heads or faces (which was equal with their lack of identity), an easy objects of idealistic and egocentric “amour fou” (mad love). More important, they were passive, not expecting. Without their eyes they were an ideal object of observation, not able to “meet” the viewer. The ideal situation (dream) would be placing here photography of Adolph de Meyer “Dance Study” (ca 1912). As the head is not cut but covered, it would be showing different ways of “loosing” the head. Why surrealists were portraying women without head? They “believed” (in their art concept), that woman is a flesh (body) – a nidus of bliss and it was the man, who only could have the head – a place, where thoughts were born. For my exhibition I have chosen women who deprived their models (mostly women) of head. The exhibition will start with the song of Cheshire cat “I am odd” from Disney movie “Alice in Wonderland” [1] and his quote about madness in the Wonderland. Soon after will be hanging an article of an artist Olga Lewicka, “How to deal with the cat”, describing how the cat can be reduced and twisted around, which in reality is a metaphor of the discourse about the differences between the cynicism and irony [2]. To not go far from the cat's issue, we will stop for a while on three (two) photographs of Ola Bell, who is depicting herself without the head (or with covered head) with her cats in the space looking alike Wonderland [3]. As in one photography artist invokes to the Tea Party, the next work will be David Cushway. In his film Fragments (Teapot) he is exploring the breaking and fracturing of ceramic objects [4]. Fragmentation is a part of the photography by Anna Gaskell “Alice in Wonderland”, where the model, wearing like Alice is hanging on the “frame”, as we are not able to see her head, which was cutted [5]. The Rabbit has run away, leaving a fragment of the song “when logic and proportion/ have fallen sloppy dead/ and the White Knight is talking backwards/ and the Red Queen's “off with hear head!”/ remember what the dormouse said;/ feed YOUR HEAD” (Jefferson Airplane). As cutting head was an issue in the book of Caroll, after the Gaskell will be hanging a clip from Tim Burton film about Alice (2010), when Red Queen is screaming “off with his head!” [6]. Which will start a femininity path, obsessed with cutting heads; close to the surrealism photographs by Alison Brady (two), who in her photography manipulate the everyday of the woman into the surreal, stimulating unconscious emotions, desires, sexual compulsions between real and fantasized... And showing madness – lack of the head, feelings of anxiety and displacement and lost of the identity. „Cutted” head in her artworks depicts unknown and uncomfortable situation, where woman, placed between sensual and horrific seems to be nothing more than body to watch, not having the possibility of Alice to change the size and cover totally, caught always in the desperate moment of enlightenment, that there is no place to hide [7]. Next will be Isabelle Wenzel, who in “Absurd office scenes” is placing women in the most impossible positions. As well here faces don’t matter – Wenzel covers the head, turning female body into an object, giving the viewer a disquieting feeling. Fascinated with minimal and functional movements of the people, working inside the office space, she is creating totally absurd situations. Not able to put the mask of the silence she is providing inside the room chaos and pointless movements. Her women are portrayed mostly upside down, always with covered head – they are becoming useless automatic machines or furniture [8]. At this point, where everything seems to be upside down it would be great to show the installation of Carsten Holler “Upside down mushroom room” [9]. And a video of Lisa Stansbile “The Cloud Collector”, about collected on the sky clouds [10]. Loosing head issue will finish with the photography of Anna Bodnar “Face off”, depicting two bended women, without faces, depicting the lack of hope [11]. But to not make the exhibition too sad and still keeping it mad the next will be the video clip of the Beatles, “I am The Walrus” - nonsense composition of English words [12]. At the end for goodby, in the photography of the Vladimir Clavijo Telepnev Alice will be kissing the White Rabitt [13], and the photography of Łukasz Jastrubczak will be showing his installation, balloons taking up two BIG words “THE END” [14]. 1 Whitney Chadwick (ed.). Mirror Images. Women, Surrealism, and Self-representation. Massachusetts 1998. p. 8