Three Graces Jarosław Perszko
5 March 2022 – 3 May 2022
Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko
Orangery Gallery
Curators: Maciej Aleksandrowicz, Leszek Golec.
Three Graces is Jarosław Perszko’s latest site-specific project, created specially for the space of Orangery at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko. It is the artist’s another expression in the ephemeral matter of neon lamps, whose light captured in a monumental installation completely re-organizes the gallery interior. Three Graces – a continuation of the neon sculptures produced by the artist in other spaces (Cold Bathroom Radiator, Door with No Title, Step) – provide a pretext for studying the structure of light, whose medium is the gas contained in a glass tube.
Years ago, the Sculpture Park at the Centre of Polish Sculpture presented the installation Step. Eulalia Domanowska, at that time the Director of the museum and originator of the idea to add the work to the collection, described it in the categories of ‘sculpture in an extended field’, quoting Rosalind Krauss. In the case of Perszko’s work this ‘extension’ is something more than just transcending extravagance, relying on departure from the routine of a sculptor working in stone, wood or metal – media dominating in the holdings included in the collection. In the artist’s quasi-sculptural activity, the pulsating and vibrating neon light is a visual synonym of the process – a category immanently inherent in the nature of sculpture, and at the same time crucial for the understanding of Jarosław Perszko’s oeuvre.
The goddesses of charm, beauty and joy, eulogized in a special way in modern art, mythological Graces find a completely dissimilar depiction in Jarosław Perszko’s project. The artist confronts the classical concepts with the characteristic industrialism of neon lamps and the sub-assemblies necessary for their operation. The bare, austere technology gains an almost corporeal, living value here. Referring to the architecture of the Orangery, elongated and mainly glazed, the light – emanating from dozens of lamps and visible from various distances in the Sculpture Park – for a moment transforms the gallery into a separate object as if belonging to the trail of sculptures from the collection. The luminous, spatial outline of climbing up forms, emphasizes the original function of the building – to grow and preserve unique, exotic plants during the time of the first glory of the Orońsko palace and similar places all over Poland. Becoming a special incubator for the vertical, neon objects – fragments of the ‘bodies’ of the title Three Graces – the site-specific project at the Orangery touches upon the nature of existence in its various features: fragility and stability, perseverance and inevitable evanescence, vanity but also faith in humanity.
Dorota Perszko-Sosnowska
