NO TIME
BEYOND TIME
A specific element of my work is the ambiguous concept of time. On one hand, prehistoric hominids, on the other hand, contemporary brushstrokes in painting or sculptures.
Recently, while in Suwałki, walking through its authentic market and staying at the Pokamedulski Monastery in Wigry, which was the initiator of the development of these areas, the founder and owner of the city, and now a withdrawn observer suspended above time, I felt that Suwałki and my works share a common denominator - a different time.
Time is currently the foundation of our civilization. It has become so deeply ingrained in our daily lives that we don't question it. A blessing and a burden. With its help, we organize our lives. Yet, we always seem to lack it.
The role of an artist is sometimes to challenge axioms, change perspectives, turn things upside down, throw a spanner in the works, and in doing so, seek. Personally, I am very interested in operating in the vanguard. The controversy surrounding time became the concept for this exhibition.
While working on this project and reading about time, I learned that it is not entirely unquestionable, as commonly believed. According to modern science, time began flowing 13.8 billion years ago; supposedly, it did not exist before that. There is also time dilation, which means that time, according to physicists, is relative and dependent on velocity (which becomes apparent at high speeds).
OPROWADZENIE PO WYSTAWIE
THE REVERSED WATCHMAKER
Can we slow it down, speed it up, or stop it here on Earth? At the exhibition, I will offer the service of the Reversed Watchmaker. Anyone who wishes can entrust their watch to me, and I will gladly change the time, remove a hand for those interested, or saw it in half. I guarantee that the service will be performed with integrity. The watch will not repair itself for at least 12 months! During the exhibition, using the provided tools, visitors can also intentionally damage their watches. I am curious how this action will impact time and us. Join me in this playful, observational, and contemplative experience.
For the project, I have created the brand NO TIME watches. All timepieces are dysfunctional and display the wrong time.
The aspect of irony and mischief is close to me, not often seen in art. It is also a retrospective action, a journey back to childhood. As a young child, I had a passion for disassembling all my mechanical toys. I was fascinated by their inner workings and understanding how things functioned. Working on the NO TIME watches allowed me to immerse myself in that world again. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that we have planned "Workshops on Breaking Watches" with the Stara Łaźnia Gallery, which the gallery will carry out with children as part of the NO TIME project.
How does this relate to my paintings and sculptures? In my works over the past six years, I have focused on creating portraits, masks, stone heads of hypothetical ancestors and friends, whom I simultaneously cast in the role of ancestors. I believe that the lives we lead have much more in common with each other than meets the eye at first glance. Recently, I calculated that around one million ancestors from around 1500 AD contributed to making me who I am. It is a staggering number of people who also gave life to millions of others. Interacting with my parents, grandparents, and children, I have a sense that our experiences of life have many similarities: we are born and we die, we feel the same emotions, we function in an increasingly global culture, on a small planet suspended in the vast cosmos. I wonder if looking at portraits of potential ancestors from thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago isn't like looking into a mirror. Time does not exist. And perhaps that is why we don't have it?
You're invited!
Robert Sosnowski
Several works were created by Adaobi Sosnowska and Ndidi Sosnowska.
