Lita Poliakova
Introspective in Perspective
WerkStadt Kulturverein Berlin e.V.
May 5 through June 9, 2019
Lita Poliakova’s portraits exceed all expectations regarding the genre. Each single work turns both inwards and outwards. We are able to recognize the sketch of a face looking at us like an expressive character in a science-fiction comic. At the same time it seems to turn its interior soul toward the outside at each point of its shaping and color rendering: Like some kind of psychogram which merges associations of different moods and expressions.
On another level, the exhibition is constantly blending humans and nature like some sort of hologram. It is an astonishing and fundamental common ground that comes into view: the elements that all organisms are composed of and dissolve into. These elements are the same in humans and plants. The artist makes use of these micro-components in her splendid organic recycling: She extracts color pigments from organic materials, such as left-over fruits, and applies them to her paintings. There might be unpredictable further variations of these organic colors. Finally, it is the solid, yet expanding crystal structure that could be understood as an anorganic and dynamic complement of the paintings.
Thus, between screen and crystal, the colors continue the play of depiction on a material level.
Is this a human face, whose sense of self, affections, facets and transformations shows up in the emergence of colors? Or is it a landscape or even a singular plant that can be depicted as a human with the help of our gaze? Do we identify the ongoing metamorphosis of a single individual or rather a huge family album or chemistry of humans, flora, and fauna?
Jule Böttner
WerkStadt Kulturverein Berlin e.V.
