Kasia Turajczyk » video

Contemporary Art in the Community #2/n

Kasia — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:37:40 +0000

Here is the second video of the project Contemporary Art in the Community. We had an unexpected visit from Doreen on October 1st 2011. She is very much into art and she liked our idea. The video has been taken outside my studio on the Haldon Hills in Devon. In this video Doreen recognises Hell when she sees it, and feels herself drowning in a really stormy, turbulent sea in one of my paintings.

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Contemporary Art in the Community #1/n

Kasia — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:33:09 +0000

“Contemporary Art in the Community” is a joint project between me Kasia Turajczyk and econnexus.org.

The idea of taking art to the community came from Jim (my partner). I think he was just bored with my constant monologue about contemporary art, or to be more accurate perhaps I should say modern contemporary art.

My monologue was about these issues:

How alienated modern contemporary art is from the image about art of the average man and woman in the street. The average person visiting a very contemporary art gallery or modern art centre at the present time doesn’t understand most of the presenting art works. She or he wants to understand the “art works”. Because they can’t understand it, explain it, find any sense in it, they think they don’t possess the academic knowledge about modern art, and they just don’t like it.
How alienated, exhausted and recessive art that is currently presented in contemporary art galleries, art shows and modern art museums. Actually, nobody understands contemporary art these days: not the art historicists, not the art curator, not even the people who are writing the articles in the art magazines or introductions in the books. Very often even the makers/the artists don’t understand them either. They just like it and make it up, because that is what others expect of them.
Art doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the 'Art' isn't art any more. Nothing is art and everything is art. Art is about personal and emotional engagement. You like it or you do not, you feel it or you do not feel it; it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you angry, it makes you disgusted. It is OK! How few techniques and skills are possessed by the new generation of students graduating from the Art Colleges these days.
Most of the artists presented in museums are talking to themselves, and have an inner dialogue with their empty mind.
However Pablo Picasso said: “Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? .. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” Art is about feeling….or should I say NON-ART is about sensation. Maybe we never should think about what an artist is trying to convey, just concentrate on what the piece means to you, how it makes you feel. After all it is your personal experience!

And so forth and so forth…..

One day, just a few hours before our trip to the ocean (body boarding) Jim came out with a idea about taking ART to ordinary people and discussing contemporary art and art in general. “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” since September 29, 2011.

The primary aim of the project is to take contemporary art out of galleries and museums, to take it out of artist's studios, and to show it to all sorts of different people in a variety of environments and locations around South West England.

We would like to discover from the ordinary people of Devon and Cornwall, what kind of art they like and what they don’t like. What contemporary art means to them? Are they interested in art at all? Is there a place for art in their life, living room, kitchen, mind? Or maybe they are not interested in art at all? These are the sort of questions we are going to be asking people on our travels. Maybe we will ask you too!

The preview of Contemporary Art in the Community

Widemouth Bay, North Cornwall, South West England
Thursday 29th September 2011

In which Graham meets a being born in the nebula of the constellation of Orion for the very first time, and is moved by Mintaka's message for mankind.

Devon Open Studios 2011

Kasia — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:16:19 +0000

Tomorrow is Thursday 1st September and it's the launch of Devon Open Studios 2011!

It takes place at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB between 2-9 PM. There will be speeches at 3pm, followed later by entertainment and of course the artist demonstrations. Several artists will present their art works, and one of them will be me. Refreshments will also be available. It's a great space, and we hope (the artists and the DOS organisation) it will be a great day, too. The studios themselves are open from 10 AM on Saturday 3rd for two weeks.
In an article about Devon Open Studios 2011 The Independent said:

Worlds away from the enormous price tags of London's Cork Street, or the glossy modernism of the Frieze Art Fair in Regent's Park, London, Devon Open Studios offers visitors the rare privilege of viewing art in the context of where and how it is made. And, should you feel like buying something, you're unlikely to have to re-mortgage your house to do so.

The county has long captivated artists with its dramatic landscapes. Local institutions such as the Cider Press Centre near Dartington, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Bovey Tracey and the Plymouth Arts Centre have long provided visitors with the edited highlights of Devon's artistic life. But creative types are now keen to show their work on their own terms, hence the burgeoning success of the Open Studios project.

Now in its seventh year, the event has grown inexorably from a handful of artists showing work in their garages and living rooms to a well-organised trail. Weavers, potters, glassblowers, photographers, printmakers, sculptors, jewellers, quilt-makers and wood-turners are all more than happy to explain their practices to visitors for a fortnight, over tea. The event costs nothing to the visitor and there is no prescribed route. The best bet is to pick through the brochure to see whose artwork appeals and just turn up on their doorstep.

The invitation to the Launch of Devon Open Studios 2011

Devon Open Studios 2011 also has its own channel on YouTube. Here's Greg Ramsden talking about "Discipline in Painting":

I met Greg a year ago at the South West Contemporary Art Fair in Totnes. He is a very nice person but also a brilliant painter, I have to admit it.

Science, video and the Boltzmann Paradox

Kasia — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:20:17 +0000

On May, 11th 2011 I was invited by Tiverton Art Society to give a talk about art, video and the Boltzmann Paradox. The society has more than 200 members and is a very active one. Tiverton is an ancient borough and market town in the county of Devon, and the major town in the Mid Devon. It was a real pleasure to be there and to talk to the audience about quantum physics, my own art and art in general, and to present some of my videos. I even read one of my poems, the one about a physicist of course, the Nobel prize winner Niels Bohr.

I had some concerns before the talk, associated with my accent and random blockages of my memory; especially as I am tired (actually I am in a state of chronic fatigue related to my ME condition). I also wanted to talk about quantum physics, thermodynamics and the Boltzmann Paradox in a language in which I still struggle to express myself in the way I want to. When I talk in English I switch my brain into think-in-English mode, which is the way to master a foreign language. But still too often I am sucked in by antimatter, which tries to destroy my brain, confuse my memory and makes it impossible to have an intellectual, sophisticated chat. I find myself missing words, idioms, sayings, humorous expressions, knowledge of complicated grammatical structures. It is a matter of exercises, persistency and strong will, I know that. I am too old and I am lazy, I guess. J) However, I think everything came out successfully. The audience reaction was lively, and I thought they showed a real enthusiasm. I was talking about myself, my art, my videos, and physics and Boltzmann Creatures of course. I brought two big abstract paintings and a few new ones from the “Peter Pan” series. I was myself, spontaneous and a ‘little crazy’ as usual.

The Brits in general are very nice and polite people. Think about it for a moment; all the foreigners using and murdering their beautiful language and then the Brits listening and smiling and trying to understand the others. It is quite an achievement. They have my full admiration for their patience and calm. Definitely the majority of the audience preferred watching art videos and videos about my art than listening to my talk about quantum physics. (Maybe they were bored with my accent and my English!?) I wanted to talk more about thermodynamics and entropy but it was unanimously decided to watch all three videos about the Boltzmann Creatures, Betelgeuse and Mintaka instead of being educated about the laws of physics. Well, the perception of art proceeds in a completely different way than the understanding of the laws of physics. You have to force and to strain your grey cells to understand what quantum physics is all about. On the other hand it is surprising, to me at least, that we don’t try to understand the laws of physics more. As if the world we live in wasn’t extremely complicated. Just think about it for a second. Everything that surrounds us is related to one or another law of physics.

My talk was recorded. From the long video I chose the most interesting and amusing parts, from my point of view of course. Here is a short video part 1:

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Kasia in the Countryside

Kasia — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:12:13 +0000

I created a video/slideshow to present my art from the last two years. Paintings, collages, installations, small sculptures all created in Devon, in Dunchideock. And of course lots of nature, black swans, trees, a cat and nice music.

Kasia in the Countryside

The Sensation of Walking by Kasia B. Turajczyk

Kasia — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:06:16 +0000

The Sensation of Walking

I learned to walk and I have walked
And I still walk…
Do I actually understand
How fortunate I am?
I can walk!
I can walk without help
And I walk using my own two legs
No prostheses, no walking stick
No artificial supports at all
Just my intention and my legs
My brain and my legs.
Usually I don’t think
About this fact, I don’t feel
This truth in such a way every day.
But it just so happens
That I am thinking about it now.
It seems so natural – walking.
Except in those moments when I see
David with his two prosthetic legs
And when I visit Ela
Her legs haven't moved for 15 years.
Then I feel how lucky I am.
I know I am independent
No diabetes and no MS
No accidents, no wars,
No natural disasters
I walk, I run, I jump, and
I trample on my left foot with my right foot
I move my body without begging for help
I can run away,
I can walk out whenever I wish.
Just a black swan phenomenon and
The unpredictability of luck.
It is the sensation
Of my fortunate perfection.
I am walking.
These are my feet.

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