Found object

Ryszard Górecki (born in 1956) is an artist who uses a variety of means of expression – he paints, draws, creates objects and collages. Górecki did not receive a classical artistic education. He is a graduate of the Higher School of Pedagogy in Zielona Góra. The creative combination of art and pedagogical methods continue to exert a significant influence on the characteristic style of his works. The artist uses frequent references to models of knowledge dissemination – scientific charts, diagrams, educational showcases and teaching aids, which he uses to tell the viewers about the contemporary world. It is a story presented from the point of view of a critical and perceptive observer. Its main objective, as Górecki pointed out, is to express his disagreement with disturbing social phenomena – commercialisation of life, manipulation caused by intrusive advertising, as well as following roles defined by culture and society without questioning them. Women (1997), the object which was added to the collection of contemporary art in Szczecin in 2008, is in line with this criticism. The work was created as a series of objects-showcases, referring in their form to teaching aids which the artist began constructing in the mid-1990s. To create it, he used toys which, while entertaining the viewers, also play a much more serious role – they teach and prepare children to take on specific social roles in the future. The impulse to create Women was – according to the artist himself – the Petra doll, which appeared on the German toy market, depicting a woman in late pregnancy. In the author's commentary accompanying the work, the artist draws attention to the characteristic confrontation of two opposing and competing models of femininity in contemporary culture - the first promotes the vision of an independent woman who shapes her image and body according to current trends, the second of a woman perceived and valued through the prism of her reproductive abilities and motherhood.

Magdalena Lewoc