2007 "HOW TO MAKE A NAME", action & open studio exhibition, Scholarship from Minister of Art and National Heritage 

Acrylic paint on canvas, 2007, 200 cm x 100 cm, signed.

Works in the series “Surname” were created on April 1st 2007 outside the shop “Gosia” in the village of Ligota Piękna with the help of the people present there. This method of making the recipient of the art active in its creation is reminiscent of 1960ies model of criticism of artist- creator. But in the case of Anka Mierzejewska, involving the public in the creative process has a quite different meaning. In a communal creation of canvas, containing only her last name, the artist takes you back to the well known in art history (also modern) procedure of “the master” signing works of his helpers and apprentices. This way she shows that collectivization of the art work doesn’t have to lead to diffusion of authorship but it can contribute to it’s concentration and fetishism. Anonymous creators (and co-creators) produce (and co-produce) artistic quality but the signature placed on the canvas isolates them form the commercial success of this quality.

Paintings with the surname ironically answer the art market expectations not only by supplying the expected value guaranteed by the signature but also by including what is most needed and wanted by the recipients’ function in the art object. In this series we find a large, presentable painting (150 x180 cm), a painting which will fit in a safe, a bathroom painting with the name to be read in the mirror, and paintings specially designed for other household areas.

Maria Niemyjska

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