Arithmetic of Platonic Love
/5
- Arithmetic of Platonic Love
- Rachunek z miłości platonicznej
- 1994
- performance filmed on VHS, color, sound
- 7min, 45sec
I would like to speak about the reasons and circumstances of the creation of this work. Krzysztof, a person close to me for a long time, gave me quite an unusual and very personal gift that at first astounded and embarrassed me.
Something poignant and grim emanated from this gift; however, I hesitantly accepted it, not really knowing what to do with something so peculiar. I also did not understand why I am the addressee of it. Perhaps it was determined by the period of several years when Krzysztof visited my house and during which we became friends. Along with Cris (my wife) we got used to the fact that he was our regular guest and participant in our lives. In a large plastic bag, which he gave me with the words: “it is stuffed with Suffering,“ there were several hundred of ladies tights, stockings and nylon knee-socks.
Gathering such an unusual collection took Krzysztof almost ten years, which required extraordinary consequence and special taste for this kind of clothing that in everyday life is used exclusively by women. This collection, both in its dense and billowed, multi-colored mass, as well as through its individual elements arouse disgust and irrepressible repulsion, because each piece was previously used, worn out by their owner and thrown in the trash, where it soaked unpleasant odor and was exposed to all kinds of accidental contamination.
For several days the gift lay abandoned in a corner of the studio, but the thought of it gave me no peace, especially that Krzysztof was asking about it at subsequent meetings and clearly expected some kind of commentary and summary of the whole story. When thinking about the stockings and their donor, I turned my attention to the fact that in such an abnormal behavior and, too many, such repulsive rags, Krzysztof saw hidden deep emotions and meanings. By that action he expressed feelings – desire and unfulfilled passion for all the anonymous people hidden behind each pair of this special garment. Stockings wrap legs, are in the closest relationship with the intimate areas of the female body. They can become a second skin united with the belly, buttocks, hips, calves, feet and toes. In that case they soak the smell and fluids: sweat, organic liquids, and often, blood. This nylon matter is treated in the same way as snakeskin, it is abandoned when no longer fulfils its function, and is replaced by a new one. In this process an element of hope for the rebirth of the body is included. One of the functions performed by tights or other legs’ coverings is masking the process of aging and destruction occurring in the human body. If I look at these items yet from another perspective, most often they serve to emphasize the difference of gender, sexuality and eroticism. Krzysztof is a collector of relics. In his obsession there is something of a longing for entering into intimate relations and love, however, not just with one woman, but with all women that have ever lived on the planet - mothers, adolescent girls, children, in the end - elders. This collection of women’s “skin” is an act of total, undeniable love for “hyper-woman”. It is also an expression of loneliness and loss, despair over the frailty of communication between the sexes, between people in general.
Handling a dialogue with Krzysztof required overcoming the barriers of disgust, to get rid of the repulsion to decaying matter and to make an effort to understand the motives that governed his mad venture. The “dialogue” took place in a small studio, after the period of my hesitation. I decided, out of the whole arsenal of diverse, individual textiles, to create a single body - a body, the object of love. I started putting on the naked body, piece by piece, the collection lying on the floor. During this event I noticed an unusual richness of the species and types of “skins”, it was possible to distinguish the fashion and styles, trace the history of the trends in hosiery fashion that prevailed for decades. Materials underwent changes, although these artificial dominated, polyamide, and others. The transparent nets of colors were overlapping: flesh-color, blacks, whites, sea blues, yellows, greens, bloody reds. I put on one layer onto another; elastic fibers went deep into my flesh. After an hour I had already so thick mass of tights and stockings on my legs that the original shapes of my limbs completely lost their form – they became cylindrical and deformed. Tightening textile hindered the lower body parts from getting enough blood; I felt numb and was losing the feeling in my legs, as well as control over them. Shell formed out of gums extremely firmly clutched the belly – was crushing the stomach and intestines. My fingers were skinned from putting on the harsh fabrics. My movements were so constrained that I was not able to draw on these “skins” anymore, then the donor himself came to the rescue, who up until then had been watching my struggle, and started the before mentioned “dialogue”. There I was, lying on the floor and he put on me more individual, delicate elements of his collection that - stratifying - were becoming more and more dangerous. Ninety minutes later I decided to break this “dialogue.” Huge amounts of layered material constituted a hard, compact mass. The time came for taking off the “super skin” that had come into being; crawling out of the “cocoon of suffering.”
That seemingly ordinary act of exposure seemed to be extremely difficult to carry out in that situation, because it was about taking off everything at once. In reality the performance looked like applying first aid, coming to the rescue. In collaboration with Krzysztof we managed to uncover fragments of the body piece by piece, liberate the hip, groin, thighs, and knees. The cocoon began to reverse. The feet appeared, but they could not break free from the grip, pause and another attempt. Krzysztof pulled the tense form with great dedication, another pause and resumption of the effort. After long lasting attempts he managed to free one foot, the other one was still to be freed. After a while he succeeded. A strange cocoon of fabric lay on the floor and next to it significant amount of unused clothes still remained. Later the described action had to be repeated two more times. In this way I created three forms that have become a major part of the sculpture. R.S.
Something poignant and grim emanated from this gift; however, I hesitantly accepted it, not really knowing what to do with something so peculiar. I also did not understand why I am the addressee of it. Perhaps it was determined by the period of several years when Krzysztof visited my house and during which we became friends. Along with Cris (my wife) we got used to the fact that he was our regular guest and participant in our lives. In a large plastic bag, which he gave me with the words: “it is stuffed with Suffering,“ there were several hundred of ladies tights, stockings and nylon knee-socks.
Gathering such an unusual collection took Krzysztof almost ten years, which required extraordinary consequence and special taste for this kind of clothing that in everyday life is used exclusively by women. This collection, both in its dense and billowed, multi-colored mass, as well as through its individual elements arouse disgust and irrepressible repulsion, because each piece was previously used, worn out by their owner and thrown in the trash, where it soaked unpleasant odor and was exposed to all kinds of accidental contamination.
For several days the gift lay abandoned in a corner of the studio, but the thought of it gave me no peace, especially that Krzysztof was asking about it at subsequent meetings and clearly expected some kind of commentary and summary of the whole story. When thinking about the stockings and their donor, I turned my attention to the fact that in such an abnormal behavior and, too many, such repulsive rags, Krzysztof saw hidden deep emotions and meanings. By that action he expressed feelings – desire and unfulfilled passion for all the anonymous people hidden behind each pair of this special garment. Stockings wrap legs, are in the closest relationship with the intimate areas of the female body. They can become a second skin united with the belly, buttocks, hips, calves, feet and toes. In that case they soak the smell and fluids: sweat, organic liquids, and often, blood. This nylon matter is treated in the same way as snakeskin, it is abandoned when no longer fulfils its function, and is replaced by a new one. In this process an element of hope for the rebirth of the body is included. One of the functions performed by tights or other legs’ coverings is masking the process of aging and destruction occurring in the human body. If I look at these items yet from another perspective, most often they serve to emphasize the difference of gender, sexuality and eroticism. Krzysztof is a collector of relics. In his obsession there is something of a longing for entering into intimate relations and love, however, not just with one woman, but with all women that have ever lived on the planet - mothers, adolescent girls, children, in the end - elders. This collection of women’s “skin” is an act of total, undeniable love for “hyper-woman”. It is also an expression of loneliness and loss, despair over the frailty of communication between the sexes, between people in general.
Handling a dialogue with Krzysztof required overcoming the barriers of disgust, to get rid of the repulsion to decaying matter and to make an effort to understand the motives that governed his mad venture. The “dialogue” took place in a small studio, after the period of my hesitation. I decided, out of the whole arsenal of diverse, individual textiles, to create a single body - a body, the object of love. I started putting on the naked body, piece by piece, the collection lying on the floor. During this event I noticed an unusual richness of the species and types of “skins”, it was possible to distinguish the fashion and styles, trace the history of the trends in hosiery fashion that prevailed for decades. Materials underwent changes, although these artificial dominated, polyamide, and others. The transparent nets of colors were overlapping: flesh-color, blacks, whites, sea blues, yellows, greens, bloody reds. I put on one layer onto another; elastic fibers went deep into my flesh. After an hour I had already so thick mass of tights and stockings on my legs that the original shapes of my limbs completely lost their form – they became cylindrical and deformed. Tightening textile hindered the lower body parts from getting enough blood; I felt numb and was losing the feeling in my legs, as well as control over them. Shell formed out of gums extremely firmly clutched the belly – was crushing the stomach and intestines. My fingers were skinned from putting on the harsh fabrics. My movements were so constrained that I was not able to draw on these “skins” anymore, then the donor himself came to the rescue, who up until then had been watching my struggle, and started the before mentioned “dialogue”. There I was, lying on the floor and he put on me more individual, delicate elements of his collection that - stratifying - were becoming more and more dangerous. Ninety minutes later I decided to break this “dialogue.” Huge amounts of layered material constituted a hard, compact mass. The time came for taking off the “super skin” that had come into being; crawling out of the “cocoon of suffering.”
That seemingly ordinary act of exposure seemed to be extremely difficult to carry out in that situation, because it was about taking off everything at once. In reality the performance looked like applying first aid, coming to the rescue. In collaboration with Krzysztof we managed to uncover fragments of the body piece by piece, liberate the hip, groin, thighs, and knees. The cocoon began to reverse. The feet appeared, but they could not break free from the grip, pause and another attempt. Krzysztof pulled the tense form with great dedication, another pause and resumption of the effort. After long lasting attempts he managed to free one foot, the other one was still to be freed. After a while he succeeded. A strange cocoon of fabric lay on the floor and next to it significant amount of unused clothes still remained. Later the described action had to be repeated two more times. In this way I created three forms that have become a major part of the sculpture. R.S.