Sick light

curatorship project: „Natural light”
curator: Antek Burzyński

The light coming through the windows of a side stairwell, painted in bright colours by Poliacikova, suffused the grey interior with cheerful colours. They resembled medieval stained-glass windows, which were intended to endow a space with an aura of sanctity and solemnity and which often referred to Christian symbols and metaphysical values.

In this case, however, the colours had been chosen following a different principle. Poliacikova’s mother often takes medicines in the form of pills in different colours, which are arbitrarily chosen by pharmaceutical companies and bear no connection with their intended use or effect. Their only purpose is to avoid patients’ confusion. What emerges, however, is an association between colours and treatment, impermanent symbols of medicine – a new religion. The individual windows were painted according to the list of pills taken by the artist’s mother. In spite of experiencing a pleasant feeling when walking in the colourful stairwell,the colours had an opposite meaning – they were the colours of sickness.

> Antoni Burzyński

fot. Peter Kreibich