Holiday Programs

Deconstructing Gosia Wlodarczak’s artist residency at QUT Art Museum

“One of the main rules which structure all my drawings is that I do not work from imagination. I draw my surrounding as I look at it in the very moment of mark making. Every line, every shape you see on the drawing belongs to the shape which is in my field of vision while I am drawing”. Gosia Wlodarczak

If you have visited QUT Art Museum during the Draw It. Code It. QUT Summer Holiday Program, you will have seen drawing artist Gosia Wlodarczak (pronounced “Vwodarchak”) hard at work drawing faces inside a closed, custom-built room. We thought we would shed some light on Gosia’s installation in order to demystify her work and inspire you to submit your own self-portrait to the artist!

Image © Longin Sarnecki

Image © Longin Sarnecki

What’s it all about?

During the nine days of the holiday program, Gosia is busy creating an evolving artwork titled A Room of Facial De-Construction, inspired by self-portraits created and submitted through a letter box by visitors to the gallery.

Gosia responds to a selection of the submitted self-portraits, as well as the space itself, by reproducing the portraits on the surrounding walls to seamlessly integrate them into her evolving installation. Visitors watch Gosia through a live web camera, and can see the evolution of the artwork before their eyes. Each day the artist uses a different coloured pen to mark the progress of her installation.

Image © Longin Sarnecki

How does it relate to Gosia’s art practice?

A Polish born artist based in Melbourne, Gosia is renowned for her cross-disciplinary drawing practice that extends towards performance, interactive situations, installation, sound and film. Gosia describes her practice as “fundamentally rule-based”. Through her performance drawing process the artist attempts to “archive my presence”.

A Room of Facial Deconstruction is a part of the artist’s ongoing series The Rooms, which explores ideas about the human body and what is real, through the process of only drawing what she can see within an isolated space.

Image © Longin Sarnecki

Tell me more about Gosia

Gosia was born in 1959 in Banie, Poland. Her works are motivated by a deep fascination with the mind’s relationship with the outside world, conducted through the human body’s senses. Her process of drawing is evidence of her existence and being present in the moment.

Wlodarczak has been an active artist since the 1980’s, with a mix of many solo and group exhibitions which she has leant her creative talents to.

Image © Longin Sarnecki
Image © Longin Sarnecki

What next?

At the completion of Gosia’s residency, you’ll be able to see the end result when the final installation is opened to the public. Come and view the culmination of Gosia’s work and see the deconstruction of all the many faces that visited QUT Art Museum during the Summer Holiday Program.

Gosia’s completed installation will be on view at QUT Art Museum from 16 January to 4 February, alongside current exhibition Portray and Play.

Draw It. Code It. QUT Summer Holiday Program opening hours
10am to 4pm daily, 6 to 14 January 2018

Exhibition opening hours
From 16 January 2018
Tue to Fri, 10am to 5pm | Sat & Sun, 12pm to 4pm
Closed Mondays and public holidays

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