Archetypes Expression
The sculptures by Sylwester Ambroziak bring to mind the art of archaic epoch, African and Polynesian, recovered for the contemporary by great vanguard artists. One can find a number of references for his „Minotaurs”, though two sources are most vital: Mediterranean civilization pre-classic art – our common roots, and exotic art. This is clear at a first glance, with no further deliberations. It is important that they have been included into the modern artist’s dictionary, his way of experiencing the world, and the form the language of which has also been influenced by – energy releasing – Expression of the 80’s. The expression and meaning of every set, every figure are the most significant, leaving apart detailed analysis, since they disturbingly recall the art distanced in time and space that simultaneously grasps our present place and time. What is the meaning of the situations the figures by Ambroziak have been put into, their sets, dances, their turned backs, contemplative, love or aggressive relations, the lasting faced with our common secret? They stress an importance and meaning of every existence and gesture. Unveiling our animal like aspects illustrates the artist’s conviction that the world of rudimentary, undisguised relations is more sincere. Is this a recollection of a good barbarian John Jacob Rousseau, or rather a conviction about an inborn goodness of a human being? According to shinto, a man has been born pure, only later the dirt of the world has stuck to him, and he has to get rid of it. Sylwester tears a civilization coating off his characters, presenting them purified, naked; not merely their bodies, but also their souls. He looks at them with warm feelings, at the same time showing the permanence of nature which – in spite of having been burdened with religion, education systems, labor division, language, family indoctrination – has preserved its beastly energy and simple reactions. One could say „let it be this way”, after all a belief that the world created by us is more toxic and aggressive, made the artist chose an archaic form. Its roots go back to childish fascination with sacral sculpture. Huge Baroque crucifixes of the Mazovian region parish churches, the tensed shape of the Crucified body have inspired these anthropoid figures. These characters have been rendered showing pure, synthetic gestures. It is very rarely that one comes across such a perfect presentation of a dance- combat scene, as the one in a monumental group „A Woman and A Man”, 1999 – symmetric, balanced in two opposite directions.
This turns the two characters relations into a noble and pathetic encounter. It is far from chaotic brutality that nowadays accompanies the power struggle between the sexes. A crying woman, made in patina covered bronze, with glass tears stuck to her – quite a non-classic manner – is equally strongly moving (1990/91). This underlines the private, intimate condition – loudly expressed by the very tears – of the huge, strong silhouette whose bulk has been co-created by the applied material. Strongly marked sex attributes are differentia specifica odf these works. The hanging, larger than life penises not merely mark and determine the strength of the energy that according to Freud was the source of any creative effort; they are an indispensable element of the composition, a needed perpendicular.
The Academy is a traditional atelier of the sculptor working in wood, Prof. Kulon and a progressive, nowadays media oriented atelier of Prof. Grzegorz Kowalski. This is where a free artist comes from , open to working in traditional materials. The sculptor who is bound to stay by his work till the very end. This does not involve photographic pictures, but working with the material that has to be touched, caressed till it achieves a final shape, then waiting for it to get patina covered. The materials are wood and bronze, cast in wax, where sculptures – due to their bulk – are as heavy as a mid size monuments.
Why is there only this form, does it turn into a trap, or rather somewhat simplified, pure language that will always reach one through its figurative and expressive qualities resulting from a purposeful brutalizing.
The gallery space got too tight for these works – theirs sizes and contrasting material make them enter open, public areas. Purposefully theatrical, facing life, they are certain to move an unprepared audience. They already had their gala openings in a small German city and during the latest „Street Art” festival. They feel at home both, among the works by other artists, as well as displayed on cobblestones. They suddenly emerge out of the dark of subconscious, our species common history. They confront a passer-by of today, belonging to the world of narrow specialization, with the larger time, where spirits were moving faster between heaven, earth and the underground world. Perhaps this „something” is here, considering that the artists dealt with archetype related topics, as early as in his graduation work, „St. Anthony’s Temptation” that initiated the very form he has been developing till today.
How does one receive these works today; not only done in traditional material and figurative, but faced with post modern, media oriented era, going back to a modernistic tradition, to the art renewal through heterogeneous inspirations.
Their contemporary aspects are of different ranking. After all, they aspire to challenge the eternal; symbolize and render great topics referring to religious cult sculpture, astral biology and to the experiences originating in the fear awakened by figurative sculpture in prehistoric times. They pertain to the shaping experience of our cultural zone, at the same time staying in a way detached. They indicate that safety and nice little civilization are so superficial and that in spite of a general trend for goodness, we have just started our path. Krzysztof Żwirblis