Objects have their semiotic system and established syntax, and so does boredom. Thoughtless signs, applied to things that are substantial and recognizable, help to expand the net of inter-relations. The relationship between those elements is just as mysterious as the meeting of the visible with soon-to-become visible. Aimless doodling on a page might be nothing more than wandering around an intellectual void. But with every line, every swirl and ornament, the certainty of passion and commitment grows. The engagement could also hover somewhere between oppression and reconciliation, sparking off some new meaning on the surface. Bownik makes ballpoint-pen drawings on Christmas wafers. He then reproduces his works with a photo camera, like a museum archivist, re-scaling them in order to reveal their mutual visual syntax.
Bownik (born 1977) graduated from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin with a degree in Philosophy and from the Academy of Arts in Poznań with a degree in Photography. His best known works include the photographic series Gamers, Słodowy, Koleżanki i koledzy, Disassembly, and Rewers. The photobook Disassembly, published by Mundin, won the main prize in the competition Fotograficzna Publikacja Roku 2014 and received a nomination for the Kassel Photobook Award 2014. Bownik’s works can be found in the collections of Museum In Huis Marseille in Amsterdam, ING Polish Art Foundation, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, as well as in private collections. The artist lives and works in Warsaw.
