INDUSTRIAL CAVE (1998)
ARC TRIUMPHUS (1998)
RESPIRATORIUM (2000)
SEASONAL SCULPTURE (2000)
TEMPLE OF HIBERNATION (1998)
Artist Statement for Tomasz Domanski (Last Updated July 17, 2000)
S T A T E M E N T - Monuments of Time
I call my "ice actions", consisting in placing objects in principal downtown squares, the Monuments of Time. I find this title appropriately noble, considering in whose honour they are erected. In each case, I seek an adequate form to celebrate time as well as what is happening at the cross-roads of the physical world and magical sensibility. By removing time from its context and enclosing it in a plastic form, I gain an opportunity to visualize the invisible. Any attempt undertaken to stop time is bound to fail but for a time being I succeed in producing an illusion of independence. The reality I create is also subject to continuous changes. My monuments float, inscribed in the shorter or longer duration of their own existence. Time co-ordinates the processes taking place inside them and is simultaneously defined by these processes. Time could not be perceived if not for those changes.
In Pressure – Compression, ice set in the context of granite cubes becomes more „solid” as it takes on some characteristics of the rock’s structure. Squeezed between two stone blocks, the ice block is perceived as the third rock, getting slowly compressed by the remaining two. The unrelenting pressure exerted by stone blocks and the resistance offered by the ice symbolize human fight against time. Man refuses to passively participate in the course of events by making a decision to act. He establishes the relation with the past and creates the future. He sets his self – awareness against and the forces of destruction. Each of my ice monuments is designed to cause a short – circuit in the stream of events. Ephemeral forms emanate some condensed energy and produce an almost hypnotic experience of having actually observed time: they create a spectacle leaving a scar on the everyday routine. Mystery and insight gain priority over the rational explanation of physical phenomena. Monuments of time celebrate and
however short – lived themselves, in memory they last immortal.
Tomasz Domanski
"Exit" 32/97 New Art in Poland
Looking over the artist’s documentation: technical drawings and detailed descriptions of the action one can hardly guess that they have to do with ephemeral installations. Why, there cannot be in the project the element of surprise prevailing in the mounting of these constructions. True, an establishment of the initial situation makes it somehow possible to anticipate the development of the intended composition, but the final shape, the duration remain unknown. Indeed the controlled accident plays a rather essential role in Domanski’s work. It is the risk that finishes the job. The artist retires, gives place to the elements which bring to an end what he has begun. So it is hard to determine how long it is the artist himself who acts and when it is nature that takes over. The final effect is the resultant of the artist’s energy and of the material forces.
Beata Lubicka
Tomasz Domanski
Bom March 25th, 1962 in Gizycko
1988-93 MA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw
Diploma at the atelier of sculpture under the direction of Professor Leon Podsiadly
1995-96 Banaras Hindu Uniyersity, Varanasi (India)
INDUSTRIAL CAVE (1998) |
ARC TRIUMPHUS (1998) |
RESPIRATORIUM (2000) |
SEASONAL SCULPTURE (2000) |
TEMPLE OF HIBERNATION (1998) |