States of Impermanence

States of Impermanence is a series of seventeen works comprising an exhibition, which forms part of the public presentation of Maja Kitajewska's doctoral thesis. 

The series consists of ceramic vases, and bouquets embroidered with glass beads. The beads, assembled by embroidery, create a complex and delicate structure, showing the transience of existence. The works refer to the symbolism of 17th-century Dutch vanitas still lifes, where inanimate objects expressed existential content, flowers symbolized the stages of human life, while glass reflected its fragility. 

States of Impermanence contains the paradox of fixing transience, which the artist regards in the category of loss, as everything is subject to constant change. The works, showing the various stages of decay, take on a form that can be described as inert and which takes on a slightly different arrangement each time. This inertia is an extension of the author's notion of ‘Flexible Sculpture’, which has no rigid structure. Kitajewska developed the term out of a need to describe forms characterized by variable shape and free arrangement resulting from the weight of the glass elements.

Flowers are usually given to people you want to honor, at moments worthy of commemoration, and placed in sites associated with important events. That is why they have a special meaning. Withered bouquets evoke the passing of time in its sentimental dimension - as an expression of longing for people, events or places that belong to the past and can no longer return.