The two-element sculptural self-portrait of Monika Zawadzki is composed
of fully-realised elements of the hand: a thumb and a fingertip cut off
from it. As a result of their scale, the sculpture has a monumental, almost
statuesque character. The thumb, in combination with the fingertip —
‘a small sliver of a sphere’, as Zawadzki calls it — belongs to a larger series
of works devoted to ‘the awareness of one’s own flesh’. In the series, the
sculptor analysed the identity of the body understood as a mass, flesh or
pulp, in open and closed systems, in relation to maintaining the integrity
of the organism or separating its fragments. In Self-portrait 1, 2 (Diptych),
Zawadzki raises multiple questions: do fragments of a body represent
existence and in what way? After dismemberment, do they still retain the
identity of their owner-author or do they become emancipated? Why does
one’s own dismembered body become an inspiration and matter for creating
art and what feelings does this artistic process generate? And finally — what
role does pain play in everything?