Mortal Shell

Mortal Shell is a solo exhibition presenting the work of artist Zu Kalinowska.

There is an element of unease that transpires through her work, attempting to challenge public preconceptions of intimate materials. With the medium of hair, she introduces controlled and manicured chaos, often encased in resin bodies. Using elements from the human, this hard flesh acts as a more fitting independent future for hair. Asking the viewer to question the post-human nature of our relationship to hair, as she explores the potential of new social intimacies beyond the body.

Zu Kalinowska is a sculptor and video artist. Based in the European Union. Her work is an exploration of societal ideas about intimacy and the discomfort of giving up control. This uncomfortable relationship is mirrored in the interplay between the alluring and the grotesque.

Kalinowska’s devotion to experimenting and combining challenging materials refutes the binary of these two aesthetic categories and evokes the uncertainty and insecurity of exposed intimacy. Similarly she plays with the distinction between the real and the artificial, human and synthetic hair intertwined in a microcosm of possible post-human intimacy.

In her artistic practice, she created objects and environments that defy easy categorisation and she tries to challenge the viewers preconceptions of one’s own ability to differentiate. Her choice of sound and texture cuts against the visually satisfying nature of these objects, seeking to create an uncertainty and discomfort within this undefined state.

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