Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in Philadelphia

‘My work is invested in surrealism insofar as both contain images that seem incongruous,’ says Polish artist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska, as she presents her first solo exhibition in the United States.

‘My newer works, especially my collage pieces, hold together contrasting qualities, such as the hardness of wood and the softness of the body,’ says Piotrowska, whose previous projects include ‘Sub Rosa’, a collaborative exhibition with designers Formafantasma inspired by power dynamics and interrogation-room architecture.

‘Generally, my work is full of contradictions – touch that doesn’t connect, closeness that lacks intimacy, and homes that require shelters within them. This duality creates a sense of the uncanny, stemming from a feeling of loneliness that arises when two people or elements exist in separate realities.’

‘Joanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies’

‘Joanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies’, open now at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania, explores this disconcerting sense in photographs, and one video, through the lens of an everyday relationship. The tension, intimacy, violence, self-protection – it’s all there, in carefully staged, familiar yet uncanny, scenes. She draws on resources including family archives and self-defence manuals to bring power dynamics to curious, choreographed life.

‘My practice spans multiple mediums, with photography being the outcome,’ Piotrowska adds. ‘For example, I work extensively with performance and even refer to the models as “performers” because the work lies in the actions happening in front of the camera, not just the final images. Essentially, what’s happening in front of the lens is my work's primary focus, and I’m capturing a moment of that, giving my work a sense of movement.’

An organic staging is centred around the environment of the gallery. ‘I also consider the design of the gallery part of my practice, so in that way it also becomes a medium of my work. The spaces I design contribute to the ambiguity of the space. For ‘unseeing eyes, restless bodies’ I thought about doors representing a psychoanalytic perspective, the opening of a door behind a door behind a door. This repetitive doorway perspective amplifies the content within the image itself. The work is in a gallery with many doorways and pink carpet in some of the spaces, bringing a sense of privacy and domesticity to the space. The carpet and the many entryways of the exhibition are a way to get to the concept of interiority.

‘By contrast, the exterior spaces – those without carpets – blur the boundaries between “inside” and “outside”, creating liminal spaces. These transitional areas reflect the interplay between public and private spheres, showing how domestic spaces infiltrate public life and vice versa. You can really see this in my self-defence works, which illustrate learning protective skills at home for use in the wider world. At the same time, the self-defence work emphasises how deeply personal aspects of women’s lives, like abortions and women’s rights, are influenced by policy, which brings the most interior of decisions into the public sphere.’

‘Joanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies’ is at the ICA, Philadelphia, until 1 December 2024

icaphila.org