Martynka Wawrzyniak
| Martynka Wawrzyniak | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1979 (age 37–38) Poland |
| Residence | New York City |
| Years active | 1999-present |
| Spouse(s) | Richard Kern (2007–2015) |
Martynka Wawrzyniak (born 1979) is a New York City-based Polish-New Zealander-American mixed-media artist who has worked with photography, video, performance, sculpture, and installations.
Born in Poland, she moved to New Zealand at the age of eight and has lived in New York since 1998.
Martynka Wawrzyniak’s artistic evolution has drifted from photography and video to performance and installations, often bringing the viewer into a deeply intimate rapport with the artist-cum-subject. She is known for work that engages the senses, often while incorporating experimental techniques.
For her “Feed” exhibition, at envoy enterprises, New York in September 2014 Wawrzyniak committed to a year-long daily exercise which involved the use of one identical 20 x 20 -inch white cloth dinner napkin to wipe her mouth each night at dinner. She then proceeded to file the napkins with a detailed record of the ingredients of what she ate. The project culminated in an exhibition of the 365 soiled napkins sewn together in chronological order in the form of an interlocking, two-spiral 100-foot walk-in structure hanging from the gallery ceiling. This sculpture was accompanied by a limited edition book in which a photograph of each soiled napkin is accompanied by a detailed list of ingredients. Elaborate three-course meals are boiled down to a scientific index, leaving the taste and visual image of the meal up to the viewer’s imagination. The artist simultaneously collected 365 6 x 6 -inch paper lunch napkins, which she used to dab her mouth after her daily morning green juice. These paper napkins are arranged in twelve framed calendar formations, creating a visual record of time passing, much like a prisoner keeping track of time by drawing lines on the cell wall. Both pieces are tactile recordings of a daily performance, and in speaking about the months-long process, Wawrzyniak says: “I felt like I was sharing my meals with the public every day and made a conscious effort to be creative in my choice of ingredients. It was like having a daily dinner party. It becomes a tactile self-portrait, representing a year of my life recorded through the food that nourished me.” Furthermore, also included in the “Feed” exhibition were two small-scale sculptures: a casting of the negative space of the inside of the artist’s mouth out of edible golden candy and the hollow of her abdomen out of confectionery gum paste. Like the stains left over from meals on the napkins these pieces are negative imprints of a living, breathing body.
In her "Smell Me" exhibition at envoy enterprises, New York in fall 2012, Wawrzyniak created an installation reflecting a year-long project where she acted as both investigator and subject exploring and capturing her biological essence. Working with a research team of Hunter College Chemistry students including Paul Kozlowski, Charles Paszkowski, and Paul S. Tewfik, under the guidance of Professor Donna McGregor, the artist underwent multiple experiments to collect aromatic elements from her body. She was subject to rigorous sessions to extract the concentrated essence of her sweat, tears, and hair to create an olfactory-based self-portrait that would engage visitors in a visceral form of communication without visuality as primary form.
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