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Ewelina

Trejta

About

I am a Polish artist living and working in London.

In my practice, I am trying to experiment and achieve learning outcomes from adopting multiple materials and techniques (concrete, plaster, resin, clay, latex, silicone, animal blood, meat, non-narrative video, photography - digital, film, and alternative).

I am engaged in a widely understood nature morte motif. My oldest background before pursuing fine art is in archaeology and the history of art. The mentioned background made me engaged with motifs and roots of Latin culture and myths in general.

Recently I rediscovered clay as a highly meaningful material with a generous content of symbolism. Clay is a truly primordial and living material. In contemporary cultures, there is a functioning archetype of clay as a substitute for living matter,

Concerning my interest in the vanitas and abject motif, I used animal and human blood. Images of flies and worms in some videos work as a symbol of decay and death but with a twist: such as highlighting their contribution to ecological renewal, and as a metaphor for transformation and rebirth. In these works, I tried to emphasize the mortality and the imminent death of living creatures including homo sapiens.

My research and creation process is focused on phenomena of death (death as a culturally meaningful event, burial rituals), body/flesh, the biological aspect of life (decay, decomposition).

I have a degree in Archaeology and I used to work in the fields for a few years. I was working on necropoles sites. Work on archaeological sites with skeleton burials (eg. burials of political prisoners from Stalinist times in Poland, executed by a shot in the back of a head; 17-century cemetery in central London); observations of the process of decay of bones and soft tissue; bones disease had had an impact on my art practice.

My Archaeology background also led me to my enthusiasm for exploring clay as a material. Clay/ceramics is always present on archaeological sites. Very often dating is based on ceramic sherds. Ceramics is always everywhere in our contemporary times. It is in the bricks of a wall, pavements, toilets, toothpaste, make-up, medicines.

I choose clay because of its symbolic aspect. It is a material used to create a human according to many myths from various cultures (e.g. Golem). Also, the fact that fire (one of four elements) can change clay on a chemical level is rather symbolic. Clay can in fact count also as one of the four elements (Earth).

Education 

2017-2021

MA Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London UK

2014-2017 

BA Mixed Media Fine Art, Westminster University, London UK 

2013-2014  

2014 Fine Art Foundation Course, East London University, London UK 

Exhibitions 

2021

RCA Graduate Show. Cromwell Place, London

2021

Stories, PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary 

Housekeeping, Jeannie Avent Gallery, London 

2019

Public Spheres Performance Night, RCA, London 

2018

Liverpool Biennial Fringe, Liverpool

Incognito at Art Number 23, London

WIP Show RCA, London

2017

University of Westminster Degree Show, Ambika P3, London 

2016

Better Something Than Nothing, Westminster University Student Show, London 2015

Paratissima, Skopje, Macedonia 

2014

East London University Show, London 

Tammann Gallery Exhibition

Collabs

2018

Partisan Social Club, Beaconsfield Gallery, London 

2015

CoLab Artist Residence, Rost AIR, Norway 

Contact Me

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