Julia Curyło: Chicks; Julia Curyło’s inflatable sculptures liberated in urban space

Feminstic Hens
Ewa Sułek

Julia Curyło’s project Chicks aims at creating an installation comprised of dozens of pneumatic hens. Currently more than ten of them have been prepared. They soon will be joined by others. The project assumes an open form — a gallery of hens constantly expanded by adding new sculptures. The hens filled with air and covered with print depicting the most interesting phenomena of “women’s and feminist art” from Poland and around the world constitute a very modern and grotesque form of women’s painting exhibition. An exhibition in an outer space. Curyło owes her interest in hens to Leon Tarasewicz, who is a hen fancier and a breeder of ornamental chickens. Hens appeared for the first time in her project Hens — Polish Painters. It is a series of fourteen PCV objects. In each of them Curyło reproduces a characteristic motif appearing in the works of such Polish artists as Leon Tarasewicz, Wojciech Fangor and Roman Opałka, among others. These objects w ere shown, inter alia, at the Metro Centrum display in Warsaw and at Julia Curyło’s exhibitions in Cracow (Galeria Szara, 2011) and Legnica (Galeria Sztuki in Legnica, 2011). The exhibition in Legnica was accompanied by a grass-root initiative — an audience member placed next to the installation a plate reading “Free the Hens!”. Other inflatable PCV objects by Curyło were showcased in public space in Warsaw (Hoovera Square), Katowice (Euro- Centrum), Poznań (KontenerART and No Women No Art festivals) — we are talking here about the Tulips series. These sculptures were produced out of soft PCV and filled with air, which is not without a meaning. As inflatable objects they have the ability to fly, to float over the earth — so they contain a supernatural, magical element. On the other hand, the filled with air sculptures are empty inside. This emptiness, lightness, as well as the material they are made of, indicate their artificiality — by mocking real flowers they create unreality in reality. Curyło’s Tulips introduced a fantasy element into reality, gave it a new magical character. This work was also intended to prompt passers-by to look at the well-known to them place in a new context. Another work created in the urban space was the sculpture Chick. It was an intrusion into the structure of an already established object — the disliked by the citizens of Bydgoszcz Millennium of Polish State Monument sculpted by Stanisław Lejkowski, which can be found on Leszka Białego Square. This took place as part of the Urban Vision Quest Project, which aims to restore public interest to forgotten objects. The installation project Chick consists of an inflated ball placed on the top of the sculpture, with “limbs” coming out of it and filled inside with inflated elements of ambiguous shapes. It is covered with print that depicts folk motifs alongside representations from the realm of dreamy imagination, colourful and picturesque, joyful and unnerving at the same time. Creation of the project was significantly influenced by the aesthetics of the sculpture itself as well as the genesis of the statue by Stanisław Lejkowski. The three–legged composition, according to the author’s concept, is a symbolic nest, which was meant to be presided over by the eagle at the top (eagle that actually never appeared up there). Chick is a reference to the original eagle, only its embryonic form. It symbolizes the end of the old system (when the sculpture was created) and a birth of a new one, exposed to constant changes. The appearance of Chick (2010) on the square was widely commented and arouse the interest of Bydgoszcz citizens towards that forgotten object. The two incidents that happened to Curyło’s works can testify the impact that art can have in public space.

When exhibiting Tulips as part of the international festival KontenerART in Poznan in 2010, one of the tulips vanished. After a few days of searching the festival organizers re ceived an anonymous phone-call with hints where to find the object. This was broadcast by Polish media throughout the country. Even a bigger media sensation was the Curyło’s piece Lambs of God — a large format mural placed in the January of 2010 at the Marymont Metro station in Warsaw as part of the competition A19 and actions undertaken by gallery Pociąg do Sztuki [Drive for Art]. Soon after the mural was revealed, voices appeared claiming that the lambs shown are in fact inflatable sheep sold in sex shops. The Warsaw Metro company and the president of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz–Waltz received a series of letters asking for removal of the mural, which was said to be offensive to the religious feelings of tube passengers. Already in January the mural was vandalized — one of the passers-by wrote on it “trash not art”. In result the piece took on its own life, became an object of interference and audience participation. After this incident the mural was revitalized, however it was decided to have removed it earlier — fearing for possible controversies as Easter Holidays approached.

The most recent project of Julia Curyło, the Chicks mark her return to the motif of hens — the painters and paintresses. The choice the female artists and their works is subjective — these are figures and pieces significant to her in some way. Incredibly important is the mere visual form of the work — Curyło selected objects that communicated with her formally. The fragments of works shown in the Feministic Hens are citations, elements or interpretations. The artist alluded to the works of Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassat, Suzanne Valadon, Louise Bourgeois, Sonia Delaunay, Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Paula Modersohn–Becker, Georgia O’Keeffe, Niki de Saint Phalle, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Shirin Neshat, Alina Szapocznikow and Natalia LL. Most of the selected works discusses women and touches upon their problems (in case of Neshad it is the situation of women in Islamic societies, for Natalia LL — the objectification of female body; Gentileschi or Delaunay represent the rare cases of female artists who entered the historical canon of old art, while Cassat was placed in there as an example of an artist whose art is deemed as typically feminine — delicate, enjoyable and decorative). The form of a hen was used in reference to the commonly used idiomatic phrase “kura domowa” [literally: domestic hen, a housewife] as a description of a woman, whose role comes down to taking care of the household and as a result of which often neglects her personal development. It is derogative term as it fits into the charge of parochialism, subjugation and becoming schematic. A domestic hen (bird) is a species that does not appear in natural environment — it was artificially created with an intention of being bred for eggs and meat. Curyło, by applying to the Hens the imagery of “female” art, converts them into “ornamental hens” — marked by art. This amplifies the contrast between art — a symptom of high culture and “a domestic hen”, a role schematically applied to women, and directs attention to another matter — the stereotypical view of women’s art as ornamental, decorative, pretty and easy to understand, which is clearly contradicted by the fragments of the works — often unsettling, difficult and demanding in their reception. The painting by Artemisia Gentileschi does not differ anyhow from the works of painters active at that time and the cruelty displayed in it evidently contradicts the premise of female art being gentle, delicate and anodyne. Already in the 19th century the idea of popular, mass culture, was linked with works of women, at the time when art and culture understood as authentic, deep — was seen as men’s domain. 1 This was connected to the Nietzschean view of “a man the philosopher and the hero”, as well as the fears tied to the growing popularity of feminism. Men constructed a certain figure of masculinity to which intellect, vigour, continence and composure were the fundamental characteristics. This was done in the opposition to a female figure — a victim of consumerist life in material world which is driven by desire. Another 19th century construct is the ideology of separate spheres, according to which women are assigned to the private world of home and heart, while men belong to the public world of politics, business and culture. These ideologically constructed categories decidedly affected the assessment of works of women. The social system and educational potential pushed women to the wayside — the main reason being the limited access to education and thus the possibility of professional artistic work. The artistic professions were definitely dominated by men. Women’s painting was treated as a hobby and the profession of artist was deemed inappropriate for a woman. 2 A feminist art critic, Anna Chave mentions the notion according to which a female body was meant to be identified at that time with a surface of canvas or paper, a space accessible to a paintbrush or a pencil — a phallic instrument. 3 Both the nude and the act of watching the work were considered, according to Chave, as penetration. These theories would exclude not only female artists but also the female audience. In Julia Curyło’s project the “bodies” of hens really play with this crude theory — at the same time they constitute the symbol of a woman and of a female body and, on the other hand, the art created by women is being applied to them. The choice of the women artists is cross–sectional — hens were decorated with works of paintresses, sculptresses and video artists from different cultures and times. This amplifies the impression of women’s constant struggle for their place in the world and history created by men, and also shows the changes undergone precisely due to the work of the subsequent generations of women. However, by putting these works on the plastic inflatable hens, the meaning conveyed becomes less serious, more sarcastic. To speak of female or feminist art shows that the canons established by homocentric art history are still strong and to talk about women’s art as a separate category means participating in the game in which men write the rules. Hens were envisioned as a project in a city space. Hence the cross-section of the artists shown and the focus on the most famous names. The aim is to bring their art to a random observer, who would not have to visit deliberately a gallery or museum. The form of a hen is meant to fascinate the viewer and draw him nearer so that he can have a closer look at the object. The displaying of hens in an open space has also a symbolic meaning — of leaving the walls and the enclosed “domestic” space, which was meant as women’s domain. It is a symbolic space not only for art but also for the issues discussed by art — women’s issues. The works were selected from artists who in one way or another contributed to breaking conventions and responsibilities ascribed to them, and who were first to speak loudly and fearlessly about problems faced by women as well as about their bodies. Finally, the hens bear connotations not only with domestic hens. In English a small chicken — a chick — is a colloquial term used to describe an attractive girl, and used as such is objectifying. The Hen series is an endless play with context, stereotype and the observer, who discovers new stretches of meaning. The project was realized thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. At the present the artist is looking for further funding to expand the gallery of her hens.