↳ Exhibitions

Maria Loboda at Wschód

November 4, 2020

Artist: Maria Loboda

Exhibition title: Her Dark Materials

Venue: Wschód, Warsaw, Poland

Date: October 1 – November 14, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Wschód, Warsaw

Maria Loboda composes installations and sculptures to investigate cultur-

al codes, represented by pictorial signs and the grammar of various materials. Throughout her work, Loboda engages with the historical narratives attributed to certain objects and juxtaposes them with contemporary interpretations and modern references. Her research stems from the fields of poetry and history and leads to a formal equation of language and materiality. Thus, through the deconstruction and reorganization of common forms and symbols, Loboda has become a unique voice in what is described as contemporary archeology.

Loboda’s newest solo exhibiton HER DARK MATERIALS comprises scultptures, installation, objects, which have been collided with various sources of violent gestures. Ripping, cutting, scratching……all disruptive, malicious yet controlled

and calmy carried out. The title is in fact an enigmatic reference to John Mil-ton’s Paradise Lost.

The installation Done on Imperial Command incorporating cut across and ripped electrical wires mirrors the sensation of an ominous premonition. The dichotomy of the disruptive gesture and its meticolous effect is amplified by the presence of a Emerald Starling. Something delicate but possibly a part of the omen?

The Dance of the Inhabitants of the House of Hypatia are three wooden light-boxes with stained glass depicting torn fragments of possibly Turkmen-styled carpet. Was the time and corrosion the destructive force or yet another con-scious violent act? The title here is a reference to a song performed by John Fahey and the tragic fate of Hypatia – the first known female hellenistic ne-oplatonist philosopher, mathematician and astronomer whose body was torn apart by an angry mass.

The concrete reliefs titled An Exceptional and Rare Wall Frieze in the Scythian Style portrays a collection of various scgraffito from various cultures and histor-ical periods. It is a collection of Lese-majeste gestures: writings from Pompeii, vandalists’ engravings copied from the egyptian pyramids and greek temples, demonological writings and medieval apotropaic symbols and vulgar (or arrest-ing?) graffiti from the streets of Paris.

My eyes fail in darkness – My eyes fail – My eyes fail in darkness, love is a frag-ment from a posthumously published poem by James Joyce – Giacomo Joyce – a love letter about an illicit love affair, presented here as a comic-style reliefs ech-oing a dialogue between invisible participants.

Finally….appears a small piece of Faux Malachite, which is genuine.