Arriving, leaving

Arriving, leaving In her latest painting series, Julia Platt confronts her past and the difficult passage into adulthood, shaped by her mother’s long, incurable illness. Being caught in loops of time, attached to the same objects from the past and returning to them again and again, no longer brings comfort; instead, it gives rise to anxiety and exhaustion. The artist tries to break free from the trap of memory through formal devices borrowed from the old masters and through a poignant exploration of different textures. 

The atmosphere of the series, in which one of the central motifs is the rose – a symbol of sudden death and misfortune – does not immediately evoke unease. It recalls the set of a film adaptation of Maria Krüger’s Godzina pąsowej róży (The Hour of the Crimson Rose). Yet contemporary, uncanny elements, such as a faience child’s shoe with a child’s portrait inserted into it, make the air grow heavy. We become witnesses to a therapy unfolding over time, empathetic companions in the process of mourning.