Francis & Hashish

Olaf Brzeski takes up a classical sculptural subject: a study of a model, the result of which is a full figure portrait. Thus the departure point for Brzeski’s piece is a traditional artistic situation, the parameters of which are marked out by the time space continuum of the studio, the figure of the sculptor, the figure of the model and the relationship between them – a relationship to be confirmed by the work of art. Here the British artist Francis Thorburn is a model. Olaf has been friends with him for years, Francis has visited the sculptor in his Wrocław studio on a regular basis.

Francis poses while smoking hashish. He intoxicates himself with it to unconsciousness, slumps to the floor, falls to pieces before the eyes of the sculptor.

The body of the model is “translated” into a new substance of reeds, dry sticks, withered grass, ears of various cereals. A bundle of brushwood, scattered by the hashish wind. The sculptor collects the brushwood, ties reeds and sticks together, builds a phantom of a figure – an open work, a three-dimensional drawing in space. The lightness of this drawing turns out to be another illusion; the brushwood from which Brzeski builds the figure of Francis is made of bronze and steel.

Text: Stach Szabłowski / Translation: T.J.