25.05.–01.07.2007
This shared installation is a seamless and simultaneous coexistence of two: Salty Water by Paulina Olowska and What of Salty Water by Bonnie Camplin.
Its an intricate configuration of made and gathered objects and images, a product of collaboration and a shared extemporaneous (free fall) voyage and a way into comprehending the modern world and coming to terms with the consequences and manifestations of industrialization and free market economy. Also its an intense meditation on the nature of trade, exchange and trust. This includes sex trade and how it incorporates versions of solidarity and collaboration between women. As both artists view themselves as women workers, they consider how this relates to their position as professional artists.
Collaboration between us has been based on working with two points of departure, one is very personal memory based reference and one is an outsiders view of myths and symbols. Both artists can inhabit both of these positions in relation to themselves and each other. Olowska is from Gdansk and Camplin is from London. Solidarnosc and Colonial history are obvious examples of symbolic and direct influences on the artists.
A boat was found and became a kind of stage onto which were gathered various bits of the haul from our shared venture. Memories in the fabric of the boat/stage of imagined female personalities who embarked on an epic voyage now washed up wrecked in interior space by a wall that also tells stories of misadventure. Apparently our protagonists have passed through psychic spaces where there are no laws of exterior/interior or of scale (like in Gullivers Travels). The installation is a haunted and moody theatrical tableau that sparkles faintly in the dark just like the glitter of putrescence.
The Exhibition Salty Water from Paulina Olowska was generously support from Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung
Photos: Wolfgang Günzel