MONIKA SZPENER | PRACE | ŁĄKA POLSKA    POLISH MEADOW POL
 

Installation Łąka polska [Polish Meadow] was a light installation set in a park in Łódź, consisting of over two hundred plaster teeth moulds collected from Polish dental prosthetic clinics. The missing teeth were replaced with light-emitting LED implants which created an impression of a glowing, flowery meadow. Sick parts of the body became illusive decorations and seemingly visually pleasant objects whose origin could be identified only after approaching them closely. This work can be interpreted as a sort of visual record of the mental state of the Polish society, and also as confrontation of beauty and nature's order with the prose of daily life. Polish Meadow opens a discussion about the real image of the body against its ideal, model image. Human bones, skull, and teeth in particular as elements of decay and degeneration of the body which is still alive remind us of the inescapability of death and place this work in the vanitas framework. In the Łódź version, Polish Meadow was white-and-red, clearly allusive of the Polish social and political context.