Zofia Gramz
Nothing happened
Zofia Gramz’s drawings, implemented with ink black as tar, represent black humor in its purest form. Deformed characters perform absurd activities, which do not cause them the slightest satisfaction. Here, “Kasia is waiting for your call”, naked “A star caught on the yacht” flirtatiously flexing, a bum drinks straight from the bottle under the arrogant “Pomnikiem czynu Polaków” (“Monument to the Deed of Poles”), “Pikus is waiting for your SMS”, “Arek the fortune teller” looks ahead of him with large round eyes, Lusia asks that she may be “shared”, and the terribly sad woman with giant sacks under her eyes, holding a cigarette butt, confesses: “I engaged my whole life in art”.
“The captions for the drawings constitute as a kind of legend to the rebuses they contain. They are also often parodies of the slogans appearing in media – explains Gramz. – The magnitude of media information is trying to break through, chain the attention with images and slogans that attempts to arouse the strongest emotions. On the other side of the monitor, in a quiet, safe setting, sits a person, who on the one hand reacts to everything emotionally, and on the other hand feels powerless amongst the sheer volume of issues. With time, the person becomes indifferent and can no longer distinguish between minor and important matters.” Maybe that's why the captions in many of the drawings are in a non-bearing opposition to the imperative mood: “Do not clip yourself", “Do not hide your head in the anthill,” “Check your child's computer,” “Sing a hymn,” “You don't know what to do? Paint a startled horse.” Gramz claims that her drawings come into existence in a similar way to improvised monologues. “Drawing creates virtually zero technical resistance – it's simply thinking in the process” – she explains. The artist’s fantastic implementations are expressive, although very ambivalent in the kind of emotions they evoke. Here grief is no different from joy. No different at all, and has the same bare teeth and spider legs. Maybe it's just a bit more blurred.
