The Counterintuitive Collages of Weronika Gęsicka
Jessica Scicchitano,
What would it look like if your camera roll erased the head of your selfie, leaving only your neck and fabulous lighting? Weronika Gęsicka’s photography asks us to question how we remember the world, creating discomfort where, typically, we desire solace. The surreal disconnection Gęsicka provides begs the question: are photos a place for us to recall some of our most important memories, or are they the beginning of erasure? Are photos no more important than another souvenir? What can we learn about our own private moments through Gęsicka’s distortion of reality?
A version of this exclusive interview first appeared in the pages of the 13th issue of ODDA Magazine.
Photography is one of the first points of contact when people try to recall a memory. How do you thwart that mission, or bring someone closer to it?
Photo Phnom Penh – Weronika Gęsicka, Traces
Photography is a very specific medium. It was created to record reality, so we often believe in photographies as we believe in what we see with our own eyes. I find all attempts at showing how much of an illusion this feeling is very interesting.
Do you find mental disorder breeds a more active imagination?
It seems to me that it depends on the type of the disorder. Certainly some of them make our imagination work much more intensively, suggesting images that others do not see. On the other hand, such distortions also cause various reservations and fears that stop the free flow of thoughts and ideas, and thus do not allow the imagination to operate properly.
What is your choice artistic medium beyond photography?
The illusive objectivity of photography gives ground for work on the issues of memory, as, in the end, one of its functions is to record memories. Photography also offers a wide range of technical possibilities that can be adapted to current needs. I became interested in photography during my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, where it was one of many courses. It began to draw me more and more and finally became my main medium.
What role does fashion play in your work?
Fashion is a very interesting topic for me in the context of memory. It helps us locate an event and evoke memories, it also inspires. Seeing a person in a costume on a photograph or a picture, we try to match it to a specific era or event. And here again, the question arises whether what we see tells the whole truth about the situation, or maybe it is a stylized illusion of reality or just playing with fashion.
How do you imagine recreating your photos if you were designing them in the era in which you’re most preoccupied?
I think I cannot precisely describe what my job would look like at the time. I draw inspiration for both the content and the form of my work from a lot of places, sometimes a current event causes me to come up with a specific idea. If I were creating in other times, my sensitivity and perception of the world would surely develop in a different way, maybe I would perceive completely different things as my reality, and I do not think I can even say how different this vision would be from what it is now.
Why do you think people want so much to be remembered?
It seems to me that this is a subconscious fear of death that each of us carries within. To be remembered, to leave something behind really means to re- main immortal to some extent. We put buildings, monuments, we give birth to children – we try to leave a mark in various ways.
Weronika Gęsicka
What is a memory that stands out to you, for no obvious reason?
There are stories about which I’m not sure if I really remember them, or if I have them in my head just because I heard them from someone. Some of them are stories from very early childhood, which were repeated during various family gatherings. I sometimes have the impression that it is just an image of the story itself, not a real event, and this uncertainty is fascinating and frightening at the same time.
Who do you turn to for inspiration?
I find inspiration in many places, often in places that I do not even expect. Among them are books, archives, scientific theories, broadly understood culture and art, but also the Internet, daily situations I have observed, newspapers and even tabloids.
What is most deceptive about memory?
Untitled #40 from Traces © Weronika Gęsicka
Sometimes it seems to us that we remember a certain event very well, but it is often just a story that over time has already been enhanced with various comments and additions of other people, but also changed under the influence of our own experience. In spite of the fact that we remember many things, they are not necessarily true records of events.
What does the Americana you take most pleasure in say about the way you see the country and its various cultures?
I think that Europeans have an idealized vision of America – a place where everything is possible and where dreams come true. Many young people dream about traveling in the United States, following the characters of many films and books. I took such a trip myself just before I started to work on the Traces project for good and it was an amazing meeting of my various ideas with reality. America is an extraordinary mix of cultures, which makes it a place that attracts people from all around the world. However, having in mind the image created on the basis of stereotypical clichés repeatedly processed in the cinema, tv and literature, the vision of this perfect world dissolves when clashed with grim reality.
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What do you listen to when you work?
Usually it depends on what I am working on. Sometimes I need something more energetic, and sometimes something that will allow my thoughts to drift somewhere far away. Usually it is film music, indie rock or indie folk.
In an interview with RedMilk magazine, you say it’d be interesting to talk to Marilyn Monroe because she became a prisoner of her own image. Can you say more about that?
Marilyn Monroe became famous, among others, thanks to her characteristic image – blonde, curvy sex bomb, enchanting men with her captivating smile. Most of the film roles in which she was cast focused on highlighting this image and often only on it. With time, it started to bother her, but it was very difficult to cut away from what brought her fame and recognition, and in time also made her an icon.
How do you like to be photographed?
I have a big problem when I stand on the other side of the camera and become a photographed object. I do not really know how to behave, so I feel most comfortable when I do not know the exact moment of taking the picture or when the session runs according to my idea and I can control the various stages of image creation.
Untitled #16 © WERONIKA GĘSICKA
Is there a greater disconnect between you and the subjects you find in image banks than if you’d photographed the subject yourself?
Working on found material requires a different way of thinking than when we create something completely from scratch. We must add some new value and, at the same, time try not to lose the meaning of the found photograph. It seems to me, however, that both when working on archives and on projects made by me from the beginning, I leave a part of myself and thanks to that, despite formal differences, you can see common points.
In one of your photos that seems least altered, a mother appears to hold her son in a laughing embrace behind the slats of a bright blue bench. Why did you choose to keep their frames authentic?
When I saw this picture for the first time, I immediately thought about the relationship between a mother and her child and how strong this relationship can be. It often influences our adult life and, even if we do not realize it, sometimes we subconsciously recall these emotions in various life situations. In the picture, by “deadlocking” a mother and a son on the bench, I wanted to emphasize such relationships even more, showing what we do not notice every day.
How are we ever to know the difference between a candid photo and a stock image?
Sometimes it is very difficult. On the one hand, the stock photos have a characteristic note of artificiality in them, usually we feel that they are posed, they have specific even illumination.
On the other hand, often when taking family photos, we try to pose everything so that it looks more professional, we keep buying better and better cameras, etc. If we mix this type of images with images from photo banks, which in contrast are stylized to look as if they were taken the family album, it will be a big problem.
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Are you more preoccupied by the science or emotion behind memory?
Both views, whether through science or through emotions, are equally interesting and allow for showing the issue from different sides.
We approach some things more intuitively, using completely different areas of our minds, with other issues we need to learn more about theories and phenomena that build them.
I think that, in many of my works, these two points of view meet and -in some way- complement one another.
Jessica Scicchitano
Jessica Scicchitano was born and raised in Upstate New York. She is the author of the chapbook "Dear Bucolic Landscape," and received her MFA in Poetry from Syracuse University, where she was the nonfiction editor at Salt Hill Journal. You can find some of her work in Sixth Finch, Prelude, Potluck, Foundry, glittermob, and more. Past internships include Bullett Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Women's Wear Daily. Though working as an editorial assistant at a community college, she wishes to host a show on the Home Shopping Network. This all happens in Philadelphia with her three-legged cat, Will.
Jessica Scicchitano
Jessica Scicchitano was born and raised in Upstate New York. She is the author of the chapbook "Dear Bucolic Landscape," and received her MFA in Poetry from Syracuse University, where she was the nonfiction editor at Salt Hill Journal. You can find some of her work in Sixth Finch, Prelude, Potluck, Foundry, glittermob, and more. Past internships include Bullett Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Women's Wear Daily. Though working as an editorial assistant at a community college, she wishes to host a show on the Home Shopping Network. This all happens in Philadelphia with her three-legged cat, Will.
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