“Caesarean instruments” is a series of a dozen copperplate engravings, which feature surgical instruments, surrounded by satin passe-partout and placed on three tables.
It is a work about my personal fears, concerning the possibility of losing sight during childbirth. For women with serious sight defect such a danger exists – the awareness of it was for me overwhelming and unacceptable. I associated childbirth with oppression, incapacitation, risk, and the only emotions I was able to feel at the time were multiplied fears on the verge of paranoia. The surgical instruments which I present are used at surgical deliveries for saving lives of mothers and babies. For me – as I thought – this might have been a rescue for my sight. I treated such an operation as a lesser evil, but my fears didn’t diminish.
Although the copperplate engravings are the main element of my work, nevertheless the essence is in showing “The Caesarean instruments” not as a mere prints, but in a form of installation. Shapes of these instruments are alarmingly weird, carrying a tension, emphasized by red passe-partout. The color of the fabric, its softness and glossiness shall remind an absent, defenseless body. The installation creates a contrast and equilibrium between body and instruments. Simultaneously ornamental mounting reveals how special and important these instruments have become to me.
The Copperplate engraving technique is an obvious choice – a sharp line is the sole means of expression, the chiaroscuro and the differences of color intensity could be attained only by condensing the lines or by crisscrossing them. Such economy of means of expression emphasizes the coldness and strangeness of instruments and at the same time allows to focus my attention on their details. In a rather strange way cutting the drawings with a sharp graver on the smooth surface of metal began to converge with the function of such surgical instruments and began to make the cutting akin to surgery. In this process, time was a very important factor, because I needed about a month to cut one copperplate. And with time the weirdness of these surgical instruments began to slowly disappear – at the end they started to be something familiar.
Installation: series of 12 copper engravings on paper, 3 tables (height: 80cm, 176x62cm), fabric