Daniel Dąbrowski – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

The work of spiders seems to make more sense than that of artists.

The idea for the exhibition stems from the artist’s childhood fascination with these exotic animals. Daniel Dąbrowski takes an interest in Theraphosidae, tarantulas, that in a way become mentors of his artistic practice. As he tends to the spiders and observes their daily behaviour and routines, he notices many similarities to his own artistic practices and human behaviour in general. The title of the exhibition refers to the task of cleaning the terrariums and removing, for example, the exuviae and the remains of insects eaten by the spiders, which then become the material from which the artist creates the artworks presented at the exhibition.

The fundamental part of a spider’s life is the creation of spiderwebs that become its home and serve to obtain sustenance. The artist admires the work of the small architects. Dąbrowski appreciates the spiders’ sculptural potential and perhaps even envies their skill and creativity when he says that “[…] the work of spiders seems to make more sense than that of artists.” He also finds similarities with his own ways of creating. In his practice, just like spiders, he begins with an instinctive, internal need to create. In a way, the exhibition was created, as a result of an interspecies collaboration.

Dąbrowski sees the spiders’ creations not only as sculptural works, but also architectural structures. Searching for the differences and similarities between the human and arachnid worlds, the artist combines debris from the terrarium with human waste, such as old, disused electronics. It is no coincidence that in his sculptural objects Dąbrowski uses materials such as steel or plaster – the basic materials used in human architecture – and combines them with arachnid-made constructions. The artist thus links the aesthetics of terrariums with the cultural and mystical perception of spiders. He also draws our attention to the presence of arachnids in our environment. Together, the individual artworks form an austere landscape allowing us to get near the animals that we would typically avoid. The artist plots to arouse the viewers’ interest and spins a web of cultural and aesthetic connections in order to pay homage to these creatures. The aim of the exhibition is thus to establish positive relationships between spiders and humans and the fact that the idea developed from a childhood fascination does not affect the viewers in the slightest – in fact, it is crucial to approach these artworks through the eyes of a child.

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  • Agnieszka Topolska