Pumping Iron
2021 - ongoing
Photography, large format prints on dibond, american frame box, dimensions variable
The works in the project take inspiration from the language (and logic) of cinema, and feature paid performers-bodybuilders, who portray themselves in ballet spaces-turned-photo studios. They are not given direction from the photographer, and they are free to pose however they like. Links are being made between the apparatus, the body, and the act of pumping - squeezing the shutter release, thus making the exposure, also relates to the strained, pumped-up muscle being registered by the camera. The spectator-subject relation becomes blurry. The artist’s role is reduced to the ‘director’ of the photoshoot, and the final result of the photoshoot lies somewhere between reality and fiction.
The topics of interest, such as masculinity and the body, also come from personal, often uneasy feelings about the nature of such.
Exhibited at Galeria Miejsce przy Miejscu, Wroclaw, Poland (20.05 -16.06.2023)
curated by Łukasz Rusznica
documentation shots: Alicja Kielan