Exhibition
WELCOME TO PARADISE - Payne Shurvell
Anka Dabrowska's new work defies categorization. Each piece is as much a sculpture as it is a painting, an architectural model, graffiti, ready-made or drawing – and it is as much about the experience of London or any other city as it is about Warsaw. PayneShurvell is proud to present ‘Welcome to Paradise’, a solo exhibition from Anka Dabrowska. Anka Dabrowska’s new work defies categorization. Each piece is as much a sculpture as it is a painting, an architectural model, graffiti, ready-made or drawing – and it is as much about the experience of London or any other city as it is about Warsaw. Born in Poland and now living in London, Dabrowska makes use of her position between cultures to respond to a sense of displacement common to the inhabitants of our contemporary metropolises. Seemingly haphazard, her ‘anti-structures’ are actually based on dozens of trips and months of methodical research. Taking hundreds of photos and filling dozens of sketchbooks, Dabrowska documents the changing face of Warsaw’s streetscapes in a living record of shop fronts, tower blocks, corporate branding and graffiti. Mingling with her own personal recollections, Dabrowska’s work incorporates her research into a creative re-imagining of her native city. A fragment of wallpaper from an abandoned building becomes a shop front, while a photograph she took of a logo from an advertising hoarding becomes a literal wall - Dabrowska’s sculptures mutate and transform in a colourful display of architectural alchemy. Built from the disregarded wreckage of everyday life, Dabrowska combines cardboard, wood, garish plastics and concrete alongside documentary snapshots and bright sprayed graffiti. No material is too base and ‘taste’ is cast aside as consumerism and punk aesthetics collide. Like her adopted city of London, Warsaw’s architecture reflects it’s turbulent history. Informed by this changing façade, Dabrowska examines the disparity between individual identity and collective memory. Although her work is intensely autobiographical, Welcome to Paradise moves beyond personal circumstances to reflect a shared experience of urban living. Along with her ‘anti-structures’, Welcome to Paradise will also showcase eleven of her latest drawings. Her photographic research will also be on display.
