Polish drushes* (*drugs & ashes)

In his phantasmagorical novel "Siódemka" ("Seven") Ziemowit Szczerek described an alcohol- and drug-fueled journey along the titular national route between Kraków and Warsaw, during which reality increasingly disintegrated, cracked, and crumbled. From its cracks, that which is most Polish emerged—all sorts of historical and contemporary phantoms, at once alluring and shameful.

Agata Kus practices a similar gonzo-style demonology in a series of large-format pastels on paper, in which the past takes on the mask of the present, blurring the lines between then and now. Kus chooses a technique that is radically outside the mainstream, yet intensely corporeal, susceptible to touch, and leaving a mark. The act of invoking the fragile medium of pastel serves not only to loosen the codified language of painting and reintroduce into its discourse that which is associated with sketches and more casual themes. Above all, Kus draws on the tradition of Polish modernism, when pastel was a tool for addressing current and political issues. It was with this very technique that Wyspiański brought to life the Chochoły dancing in Kraków’s Planty Park, and Kus reminds us that they are still prancing about, needing no fuel other than their Polishness.