Eye Painting Object

"The eye needs time to establish the spatial relationship between the observed object and its surroundings. This process is slow and only provides a partial view of the world from a specific angle. Touch, on the other hand, allows you to focus on a single object, which is its advantage over vision.”[1] 

One might be tempted to say that images exist only within our eyes. Therefore, when we paint an eye, we are painting all the images within it. In my paintings and synthetic objects, I symbolically contain all of these images. Rather than a portrait of a figure in whose eyes we can see ourselves, we are dealing only with eyes in which we see our own reflection. By removing the eyes from the eye sockets of the face, I eliminate the distance between the subject and the viewer.

The images are created according to a fixed sequence and developed routines, for which rhythm and repetition are important. I create them by multiplying a single element to form rhythmic patterns of seemingly identical elements on the surface. However, the very act of hand-painting introduces differences between the individual motifs. I start by drawing a geometric grid on the paper with a pencil to delineate the spaces for the individual open and closed eye shapes. I then paint quickly in an impressionistic style. Once I have precisely traced the grid onto the paper with a pencil and ruler and marked out the fields for the individual elements of the painting, I allow myself the freedom to paint. The paintings serve as templates for the forms of the textile objects. I want to emphasise the difference between painting and object, and between visual and haptic form. To do this, I juxtapose paintings on paper with spatial forms.

The eye symbolises passivity — it can only look or look and see. 

Irmina Staś 

The exhibition is a publication of the doctoral dissertation entitled ‘Oko Obraz Obiekt’ (Eye Image Object) conducted at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under the supervision of Prof. Katarzyna Józefowicz and Assistant Promoter Dr. Monika Murawska.

[1] Marta Smolińska, Haptyczność poszerzona Zmysł dotyku w sztuce polskiej drugiej połowy XX i początku XXI wieku, (footnote 139. U.Zeuch Umkehr der Sinneshierarchie..., dz.cyt.,pp. 125-127.