Light Rose I (Smokes), 2000
From the series
Self-portraits180 x 150 cm
Silver gelatine print
Zofia
Kulik started to create monumental, black-and-white photographic
compositions after 1987, which brought an end to her collaboration with
Przemysław Kwiek as KwieKulik. At this time she started to produce
self-portraits. They came as a manifestation of an awakening of
identity as an artist. Along with this self-portrait justification came
the ornament, which served as a way for Zofia Kulik to untangle her
vision of history, politics, and art. She moved towards her avant-garde
concept of building an archive – a revolutionary approach that tackles
archiving as an essential artistic practice.
Using photographs only from her archive, she developed her own technique of multiple
exposures of negatives on photographic paper through precisely cut
masks. Kulik's work takes on various forms marked by interlacing rhythms
and patterns: from photo carpets through columns, gates, medals, and
mandalas to open compositions. Thematically, she focuses on the
relationship between men and women, as well as on symbols of power and
totalitarianism. Following the continuum of recurring signs and
gestures, a further pivotal part of her work is the phenomenon of mass
media and its influence on consumers, as well as the continuum of
recurring symbols and gestures.