Sunday, October 21, 2012

Beata Batorowicz, Tales with historical spaces Review


written by Sam Rohweder
I knew, even before I stepped into the space, that I was going to love this exhibition. The dark grey wall with its' bold red hand-styled type announcing the exhibition and the darker walls with muted lighting beyond added to the atmosphere of Mystic old world charm that excited my imagination. The impression I had when I first stepped down was of heading into an old forest, reminiscent of the one in Red Riding Hood.
We were fortunate enough to be guided through the exhibition by QUT Curator Pia Robinson who talked about the layout of the exhibition. She spoke of the soft, warm lighting choice that helps to evoke a sense of warmth and comfort. She also explained how she used the wall colours to push the narrative of the exhibition with introduction on the darker walls, content of the story in a brighter environment and then a somber wrap up with darker walls, once again, at the end. Pia went on to talk about the artist Beata, and give us some insights into the background for this body of work.
Beata Batorowicz was born in Poland and immigrated to Australia, settling in Queensland with her parents when she at the age of five. Most of what she knew of Poland was from the stories her parents told her and the Polish story books they read to her. As a child she had been most especially fascinated with a Fox character in the Polish story book “Brzechwa’s Dzieciom” by Jan Brzechwa and illustrated by Jan Marcin Szancer. Beata identifies with this cunning character and certainly pays homage to him in many aspects of her work, often referring to herself as a Trickster or Foxy Artist.
We were lucky enough to be joined by Beata for our tour and she quietly shared her thoughts and insights into the processes of her work. I was most fascinated with her description of big art and little art. She explains that 'big art' is based primarily in description and documentation, it is more institutionalized. In contrast 'little art' is more concerned with narratives and the stories of emotions. She feels that her work has more of a folksy feel to it, with her use of crafts such as sewing and knitting. The puppets and masks stitched together with skins and fabrics also have a very old world feel. They are much more tactile objects, having been created to be used or worn rather than just admired. She says her Trickster character is a symbol of the little art practice which she identifies with.
This exhibition is the culmination of a project that began with Beata going back to Poland to explore her origins. There she gathered stories from her grandmother and visited the places of her early childhood. What she brought back from that visit was a sense of nostalgia and whimsy, interlaced with her parents and grandmothers stories of hardship and loss during World War 2. It's difficult to imagine marrying together these diverse concepts into a cohesive exhibition but, Beata is a story teller at heart. Using her persona as the Foxy artist and trickster Beata weaves her story through her lovely illustrations reminiscent of those from “fairytales from Auschwitz” set beside meticulously crafted puppets and masks. These are interspaced with polarized photographs of the Polish forest in winter, family stories in didactics on the walls and framed photographs and documentation from World War 2, to create the complete narrative.
What she finally shares with us is a poetic representation of how her adult eyes and her childhood imaginings have merged to create a lovely, unworldly story of her family’s history. It's all together heart breaking and uplifting at the same time. Beata will be taking this exhibition to Poland in 2013, and I can't help but wonder, what they will they make of her interpretations there? 

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