Boundless Love for Sculpture
The sculptures by Sylwester Ambroziak, his creation, have a very special place in the Polish, as well as in the European and world art. Whys is he so unique? First of all because he speaks about a human being in an original manner; i.e., he presents an extremely rare – if at all present in the contemporary times – point of view. Just like the hippie movement and Woodstock. Just like John Lennon, or George Harrison. Or like the distant historical figure of St. Francis and his love for people and animals.
The sculptures by Ambroziak are anthropologic. They resemble most of the sculptures made in the world. They only differ in it that they tell about a man with boundless love. About every human being. They tell us about his helplessness, loneliness and the subdued, secret emotions. They tell that our short-lived body is all we have. That we are the transient, grotesque owners of certain carnality. That originally, we had been non-politically, non-religiously, non-culturally and non-socially related. That we are merely humans. That as a matter of fact, we do not differ at all. And we are more and more convinced about it watching his sculptures, one after the other.
This elementary truth, however, has been doubted by many people. It has been doubted by many countries, cities and nations. In fact, all of us doubt it. One can add at this point that all the unhappiness of our world results from opposing the thus formulated thesis. There is no consent to confirm quite an obvious statement: we are all the same – defenseless, lonely, lost. In the universe and among the ones close to us. Paradoxically, we are being forced daily to approach other people in an unfriendly way; we are forced by religion, politics, culture, binding customs, social hierarchy and rules. We are morally obliged to raise absurd claims about our uniqueness or greatness, to look for a justification to gain “certain power” and bring down others, and not to love others.
For the purpose of his own mission, the artist has made quite an intriguing discovery. He has acted exactly opposite to the way Ancient Egypt sculptors did. Instead of looking for individual qualities of each of his characters, he has been looking for the qualities they share. He has invented for us a face to have in common. The eyes, noses, lips to have in common. He has invented a human head to share. Considerably a larger one. Common legs, bodies, and arms, and a similar soft, human form. Certainly, one knows that such people do not exist in reality.
As though by chance, I have noticed not a typical dependence characterizing the sculptures by Ambroziak. One should watch his sculptures directly, personally. It is only through a direct contact that they emanate their strength. Every photograph – even the best one – is deceiving. It does not reflect the sculptures size as compared to a human body. The disturbed proportions are really intriguing – a lack of coherence with the reality. A photograph does not show the subtle structure and color variations being an equally significant aspect of these sculptures.
Further, there is an issue of inspiration and positioning the artist against the background of the contemporary art trends. At this point, one is being faced with a problem. Similar formal way of thinking is easier to encounter in painting and drawing. It is likely that a concept of a “universal” man had earlier occurred in African sculpture. Possibly, the 80’s dramatic and expressionist artistic approach has significantly influenced this art. One can also see an impact of folk art, originating in our culture zone, and – to some extant – an impact of the art by Jerzy Bereś, who as early as the 60’, gave up a classic attitude towards the sculpture form, thus disturbing a general image how a sculpture should look like. The precise formal identification, however, is not so significant, when the artist deals with vital topics.
One can only state that the works by Ambroziak are impressive, if not startling because they totally stand out of their kind, i.e., the branch of art they belong to – sculpture. They contradict a great tradition referring to power, a pathetic history of nations and its heroes. They are the very opposite of searching for and presenting all kinds of pathos. They do not follow a great modernistic tradition, either. One does no know, one is not convinced if his sculptures are close to the post modernistic way of thinking about art. Possibly. Another aspect is more important, as it has been said at the beginning: they bring one closer to approach another human being with boundless love.
Władysław Kaźmierczak
Słupsk, July 5th 2002