N.N. vs. Artists
In the series N.N. vs. Artists, Pawel Ksiazek intertwines a collection of diverse narratives by accumulating sources through an archive of online images of anonymous people, art history, and performance art. This impression is reinforced in these artistically transposed images through references to art history and performative practices from the 1960s and 70s, such as Caravaggio or Vienna Actionism. This weaving together of various thoughts and concepts become paramount in the creation of non-linear tales that explore ecstasy, anarchy and existentialism. The vast series questions authorship and censorship as references of performance art are spliced with found internet images that are in some way inadvertently interconnected, either visually or conceptually. His latest oil-on-canvas additions focus on large paintings portraying women with a scrawling of paint, clouding parts of the subject from view. In the twisting of truth, the distinction between "real” and "unreal” often become blurred in Ksiazek’s pieces as elements are manipulated, retouched and compiled, leaving almost everything open to interpretation and teetering on the edge of fantasy.