Emotional Autopsy

×

Expand

Kasia Sosnowski, “Good Grief” (detail), 2018

ceramic sculpture, installation view (photo by Tyler J. Stewart)

Kasia Sosnowski offers a personal perspective on depression and anxiety in Good Grief, on view at The Gallery at Casa in Lethbridge, Alta., until Oct. 19. Fragile ceramic sculptures – absurdist torsos, limbs and other abstracted anatomy – examine how the body processes trauma. It’s almost an emotional autopsy, with grief recorded from a phenomenological perspective.

Sosnowski’s work is displayed densely within the small gallery. Intimate porcelain sculptures are arranged alongside larger pieces. Numerous works feature mirrors as prime components. Like black holes, they draw in viewers, their powerful vortices inviting us into shared emotional experiences.

The subject matter may be serious, but Sosnowski’s approach is playful. Corporeal structures are unravelled, laid bare, reshaped and then whimsically transformed with colour. Sosnowski rejects judgment and welcomes honesty, inviting viewers to experience these entanglements for themselves. While many of these figures might seem paralyzed or inescapably entrenched in limbo, she offers escape routes from torment via portals and ladders, recurring motifs in the work.

×

Expand

Kasia Sosnowski, “Good Grief” (detail), 2018

ceramic sculpture, installation view (photo by Tyler J. Stewart)

The installation feels like an interrogation of the self, each work acting as a new piece of testimony. Like the cacophony of thoughts and emotions that continually circulate through us, her work seems to swirl around the gallery space, prompting new and conflicting responses at every turn. Sosnowski shares her vulnerability through these delicate porcelain constructions, encouraging us to admit and embrace our own fragility.

×

Expand

Kasia Sosnowski, “Good Grief” (detail), 2018

ceramic sculpture, installation view (photo by Tyler J. Stewart)

In an increasingly polarized world, it often feels as if trauma awaits us at every moment. Daily reports of violence, sexual assault, hate speech and the like put us at risk for compassion fatigue, reducing our capacity to feel empathy and care for others. Sosnowski offers a hopeful alternative. Simultaneously delicate yet bold, each work acts like a journal entry, processing feelings sequentially, bravely working through grief. Collectively, these poignant assemblages elucidate vulnerability as a path to inner strength. ■

Good Grief is on view at The Gallery at Casa in Lethbridge, Alta., from Sept. 8 to Oct. 19, 2018.