Ela Polkowska
Lives an works in Sweden
www
Splinter
Splinter is a story of people living in continuous disorder, comprehended both literally and metaphorically, and about the feeling of uneasiness that their lives provoke.
In the course of the year, I used to visit a family living in a house which should have fallen apart a long time ago. Yet, its residents apparently refused to accept that only order is legitimate in today’s world. They created around themselves a world resembling a warehouse – a space packed with things, whether working or not. Every time I went there, things would change their position, different people were visiting the house, sometimes it was hard to tell who is a member of the family and who is a stranger. It seemed that the continuous change gave meaning to that reality.
Whilst working on the project, I developed my visual language based on strong colours and close-ups, focused on telling a story through small extracts from a specific environment. My work emerges from intimacy and closeness, visually followed by confined frames of objects separated from the background. Constantly using flash and approaching objects from a very close proximity, I am aware of my distracting presence. In a similar way I perceive the role of photography as a medium of communication, with its capability of taking viewers out of their comfort zone.
