Konrad Maciejewicz

Lives and works in Warsaw, Poland

Artist statement

My work explores domestic space – understood both as a zone of safety and protection, and simultaneously as a space of control and surveillance. Everyday objects – familiar, mundane, often associated with maintaining cleanliness or feeding – become starting points for a personal archaeology of memory, not understood in a nostalgic sense, but rather as a practice focused on uncovering the meanings embedded within the very materials. For this reason, I often use casting as a gesture directly linked to the act of remembrance. What holds particular importance in this context is the metal casting – their ability to constant change, much like the transformable process of recollection. This finds its echo in the specific material demands and process of working with metal – from the dirt of raw castings to the cleanliness, revealed through grinding and polishing. Cold, hieratic materials like aluminum, steel, bronze, or brass are juxtaposed with the corporeal softness of rubber, latex, balloons, or baby pacifiers. This interplay suspends the identity of the objects between utilitarian devices and contemporary reliquaries. I consider a work successful when a utilitarian object I’ve selected and transformed re-emerges with a new identity – while still retaining a trace of some disturbed or secret function, often resembling that of a sacred object. Some objects take on the appearance of surveillance equipment – mirroring the act of watching and being watched. Repetition and...

Artwork