Out of My Mouth: The ‘Photosculptures’ of Alina Szapocznikow

3 June – 29 August 2010

“I am convinced that among all the manifestations of impermanence, the human body is the most fragile, the only source of all joy, all pain and of all truth…” Alina Szapocznikow, 1972.

This exhibition features a remarkable series of works created by Alina Szapocznikow in 1971. Simply titled ‘Photosculptures’, these images depict pieces of gum which have been chewed by the artist to produce an assortment of abject sculptural forms. As the title implies, Szapocznikow regarded photography itself as a sculptural medium which allowed her to explore formal qualities such as scale, texture and contrast. As she stated in the accompanying text: “It is sufficient to photograph and enlarge my masticatory discoveries to create the event of a sculptural presence.”

Throughout her career the body was the principal focus of Szapocznikow’s art. Moving on from more conventional figure sculpture, from the mid 1950s she began experimenting with new materials and production methods. She took casts of her own face and body parts and translated them into grotesque and sexually-charged assemblages. Thus, the body became not only the subject of her work but the active agent through which sculptural forms could be created.

Born in 1926 to a Jewish family in Kalisz, Poland, Szapocznikow survived the concentration camps of Bergen-Belsen and Teresienstadt during World War II. She went on to study sculpture in Prague and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Returning to Poland in 1951, she established a reputation as a figurative sculptor through official commissions, such as the 1953 ‘Monument to Russian-Polish Friendship’. After representing her country at the 31st Venice Bienniale in 1962, Szapocznikow settled in France where she became associated with proto-feminism and Nouveau Réalisme. She died from cancer in 1973.

The works shown here are 2001 edition prints, loaned by kind permission of Jan Piotr Stanislawski.

Translation of text from the exhibition:

Last Saturday, under a blazing sun, tired from having polished for hours my Rolls-Royce made of pink marble from Portugal, I sat down and began to daydream as I unconsciously chewed my chewing gum.

Pulling these odd shapes out of my mouth, I suddenly realised what an extraordinary collection of abstract sculptures was passing through my teeth.

It suffices to photograph and enlarge my masticatory discoveries to create the event of a sculptural presence.

Keep chewing, look around you.

Creation is found between dream and routine.

92 Malakoff, 22 June 1971 Alina Szapocznikow