De(con)struction of the Leaning Tower II

Maria Pinińska-Bereś

  • type of object: sculpture
  • date: 1995
  • material/technique: sponge, canvas, acrylic, plywood
  • dimensions: various dimensions
  • inventory No.: RZ-70
  • image licensed under: CC BY-SA

Maria Pinińska-Bereś’s art at the beginning of the 1970s becomes soft — at a certain point, the artist departed from the traditional understanding of sculpture, gave up its durability and weight (also in order to be able to carry the light works herself), and consciously reached for textiles and sewing techniques associated with women. She began stuffing and modelling fabrics, then covered the compositions with white and pink acrylic paint, making them associated with organic, erotic forms. Since the late 1970s, art critics have often described Pinińska’s work as feminist. This work was not fully appreciated and understood during the artist’s lifetime and has experienced a renaissance in recent years.

De(con)struction of the Leaning Tower II is a 1995 installation consisting of three elements. The title was written directly into the work — texts often complement Pinińska’s sculptures. It seems that we are dealing with an intellectual joke — a mockery of one of the symbols of European culture — the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Pinińska’s tower is not made of durable material, but of sponge, and does not have a noble colour — it is pink (the colour is the artist’s trademark). Deconstruction in this case refers to architecture, but in the 1990s it was also a popular philosophical concept in Poland (created around 1960 by Jacques Derrida). The well-known monument is decomposed into three objects that have sexual-phallic connotations.

In the second half of the 1980s and in the decade that followed, the artist also referred to other works of the past in her work (King and Queen, 1986; Princess Y, 1987; The Flaming Giraffe, 1989; Odalisque and Slave, 1990; Beauty and the Beast, 1990; Mme Récamier, 1991).

Karolina Zychowicz

translated by Paulina Bożek

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