Zofia Kulik

Garden

Zofia Kulik started creating large black-and-white photographs after 1987, marking the end of her collaborative work with Przemysław Kwiek (KwieKulik 1971–87). Her photographs are meticulously produced with a darkroom process using multiple exposures of negatives on photo paper, achieved through precisely cut stencils. This technique developed by the artist allows her to compose a single work of many individual images drawn from her extensive archive, which Kulik has been building since the start of her artistic practice.

In her Garden (Libera and Flowers) series, Kulik arranges and photographs flowers collected from her own garden over a black-and-white photo of Zbigniew Libera. This image is part of her Archive of Gestures, an extensive collection of around 700 images depicting various poses drawn from historical iconography. Each composition is meticulously tailored to the specific qualities of the plants used—poppies, roses, iris leaves, or lime-tree blossoms—which form heraldic patterns that emphasize the nude model’s sexual vitality. Their geometric arrangements may evoke French formal gardens, where everything is precisely designed and trees and bushes are trimmed into artificial shapes.