Natural histories

Is the human species really adapted to the world? Does the world fit the needs of the human body? Is Earth truly the right place for human beings?

The depiction of young men and women in the photographs of Łukasz Wierzbowski is akin to the way kittens are stuffed into vases to see if they fit. Their bodies evaluating the comfort and convenience of the objects they encounter – a glass plate, a wardrobe, a roadblock, a construction crane, the junk remnants of a burned-up car. These images are quite far from any cool, analytical sort of conceptualism. In fact, they are downright baroque in their excess – sensual and even fragrant. The artist’s lens captures the gleam of blooming young women, flowers too, the light of the setting sun. Wierzbowski’s visual world is replete with sensory stimulation, bright and warm, and yet underpinned with a sense of unease. This unease is albeit transformed into innocent jokes and play. These Natural Histories make up a multidimensional game of hardly any rules. This is an iconographic labyrinth of ideas, themes, references, figures and repetitions. It is up to the audience to interpret their collective significance.