Wandering of Fullness project refers to the search for fullness in art, which the artist identifies with finding the truth. She recognises the truth in art by examining the relationship between a creative process and a final work, between perfection and imperfection of the work, and by analysing the sense of creation and the impact of art on the psychological transformation of a viewer. In turn, she considers mental transformation in relation to well-being, which she understands not only in hedonistic terms, but also in eudaimonistic terms.
The project is a result of four years of self-observation of the creative process, which the artist-researcher carried out while painting her doctoral series, taking into account her experiences in everyday life. After her doctoral defence, she decided to extend her research into the creative process and include a medium other than painting, i.e. artistic waste, which became the semi-perforated papers used to prepare stencils in painting. These papers accumulated the leftover paint on themselves, emanating an energy of exploration and the emotions associated with it. Initially discarded by the artist, they eventually began to be stored in large bags. From this waste, the artist created 4 objects, using forms spontaneously shaped by the way they were stored, and consciously intervening in some of them.
The exhibition of works within the Wandering of Fullness exhibition was characterised by its installation nature and the richness of its forms, content and emotions. It consisted of objects made from artistic waste, paintings considered successful and unsuccessful, unfinished painting, the written word, recorded reflections and a video documenting the creative process and a material collected during self-observation. The artist performed a kind of creative process deconstruction. She recognised that showing only successful paintings is falsification, and that the most important value in art is truth. For this reason, in the project she has shown what is shameful for the artist and hidden for the viewer, such as unsuccessful works painted grey (but with documentation of the creation process recorded on video), an unfinished painting and notes-narratives, as well as recorded reflections making public her dilemmas while painting.
Through an installation arrangement of the elements of the creative process, the artist presents what she believes constitutes completeness in art. In this view, it is only in all the elements together that the final work is created; it is only in their combination that she recognised the truth, or approaching it.
Painting in this project was therefore the subject of research, concerning the impact of the creative process/contact with art on the artist’s/viewer’s well-being. In the solutions on canvas, the artist aimed to show movement, dynamism, to express through the language of painting the positive qualities identified with the will to live. In doing so, she was inspired by the ballet projects of Wayne McGregor, the British choreographer of The Royal Ballet. The result was large-scale paintings oscillating between expressive figuration and formalist compositions close to abstract art. During the creative process, she also accumulated waste, in the form of paintings deemed unsuccessful, pulled off the looms and painted grey after some time.
All of the works in this project feed off of each other, emerging from each other while simultaneously creating oppositions. Next to the multicoloured, expressive paintings we have grey, matted canvases, next to the flat forms we have the spatial ones, next to the painted works we have the word, and so on. In addition to the sensual, emotional reception of the works, the author urges the viewer to theoretical reflection on art and its meaning.
Photo below: Michał Łagoda
