Dummy
Helena Parys' works - despite their aesthetic consistency - elude clear categorization. The very title of the exhibition, whose function is implicitly to lead the viewer to a specific trail, when translated does not seem to make the situation any easier. For, coming from the English language, dummy has not one, but a whole range of meanings; aware of this fact, the artist allows us to look at her works through the prism of such concepts as fool, dummy, dummy or deception. The ambiguity about which party is experiencing the aforementioned deception is right. The dummy can be both myself - the viewer, who brings his own beliefs to the painting - and the artist's figure, located in her own paintings. The role of the self-portrait, which is an integral part of each of the presented works, is by no means to take over all the lights and direct them to herself. More than substance, it appears as a link between the depicted world and the viewer. The female figure facing us seems to be saying: everything you see fits into one person. When we make eye contact again, she adds: I am here, but I am looking at you; isn't it the case that we are both here? We have to decide for ourselves what is here and where it is. The artist provides us with many clues for this purpose: starting with the realistic style in which the paintings are maintained, and ending with the symbolism woven into the scenes - casual and unobtrusive, working more intuitively than literally. So we have not only the tools, but also the freedom (both in interpretation and in locating the world on any of the maps available to us).
The places we see are existing and discovered, and we should not assume that we are visiting them first. Nevertheless, we are not intruders in them. Pulling off someone else's nails by a naked woman, expresses itself as consent to share the world and fate with her. It doesn't matter how you feel about it. It is enough that you are here. Parys' paintings speak, establish a dialogue and occasionally choose to express an opinion. The figurative language they use lets us know that - despite everything - we are still at home. We guess what the objects and people inside the painting feel; we know the chill that pierces our feet, and we know how warmly our hair can wrap around us. So it is worth asking ourselves whether the depicted world ever played out outside of us? It is equally important to leave this question open. In her works, the artist often chooses to use 3D objects - both as a complement to the painting and as a stand-alone exhibit. The result is a progressive blurring of the boundary between conjecture and the real and familiar. Playing with the notion of fiction skillfully mimics the sensation that occurs during sleep, when the experienced states do not go hand in hand with the guarantee that they were triggered by something real. However, in the case of Parys, the recurring question: what is real? does not disappear with awakening - instead, it functions as an intrinsic and ever-living element of her work, undermining every newly erected boundary between fiction and truth.
Text by Karolina Krasny
Artist: Helena Parys
Art Agenda Nova | Kraków, Poland
