Paweł Żak, “Three words and other still lives”

In the still-life cycle, I make an attempt to give some everyday objects (placed on a white table surface) a symbolic meaning both referring to sacrum and intense experience of everyday life. At the same time, I try to avoid formulating any ideological message and leave some space for one’s individual interpretation.

This images have been discussed for example by Bogdan Konopka in his text “O martwych natur wskrzeszeniu” (‘About the still-life resurrection’) enclosed in the exhibition catalogue; he wrote: “… In fact, usually there are no dishes on the table; nevertheless there is something mysterious, unknown and incomprehensible happening in front of our eyes… Sometimes one thinks of it as it would be neither a table nor a remembrance of the Last Supper with a stained tablecloth. It looks like a deathbed after the last rites with unnecessary shroud on it, as if the body and spirit had vanished leaving no marks…”