“HERBARIUM”

„Herbarium” is a new series of paintings in which I move away from a critical and dystopian diagnosis of reality towards a more intimate and contemplative exploration of the bond between women and nature.

I am interested in this bond as a cultural phenomenon, rooted in history and inscribed in the collective unconscious. From this relationship emerges a particular image of the woman as a seer — a guardian of certain truths and of a form of wisdom that is not associated with schools or “universities,” but rather with knowledge derived from observation, contemplation, and an understanding of the world around us — its rhythms, cycles, and interdependencies. Historically, women excluded from official systems of education created their own “alternative universities,” based on experience, tradition, and knowledge passed down from generation to generation. It was practical knowledge, rooted in closeness to the earth and plants, in attentive observation of the world, as well as in memory and a sense of belonging.

The starting point for the series was my need to examine this relationship with the world around us — understood not only as a bond with nature, but also as a network of connections with places, emotions, and experiences that, to some extent, shape our identity. With Herbarium, I wanted to turn towards an affirmation of the world and nature, which stands in a certain opposition to my earlier series, such as Utopia and Witch Hunt, in which a dystopian vision of reality and a critique of negative cultural and social phenomena predominated.

At the same time, I do not see Herbarium as a complete break with my earlier narratives. I remain interested in patterns of thought present in culture, stereotypes, superstitions, and certain forms of tribal ways of perceiving the world. This time, however, they do not necessarily have to carry an exclusively negative meaning. Instead, I wonder whether the stereotype of the witch-woman might, in a certain sense, lead us towards the figure of the woman as seer and shaman — one who remains in a particular closeness to nature, senses its rhythms and cycles, attempts to enter into harmony with it, and perhaps even, in some way, to resonate with it.

The inspiration for the series came from the metaphor of the herbarium as a vessel of memory, in which dried plants become records of suspended moments and states. In a similar way, experiences are gathered and preserved here so that they may return as traces, memories, or nostalgia. The herbarium is therefore, for me, a metaphor for memory — one that preserves what has passed and allows it to return.

It will come as no surprise that the central motif of the series, as in my previous works, is women. This time, however, I am particularly interested in the connection between the feminine and nature and the earth. This feminine element, also present in mythologies and ancient representations, symbolizes for me an intuitive, embodied, and emotional attunement to the world, the ability to preserve and transmit memory, as well as a more organic and holistic experience of the passage of time.

I did not want Herbarium to become an illustration of a specific theory or a lecture on the relationship between women and nature. Rather, this theme serves as an impulse for visual journeys that remain open to associations and ambiguity. The paintings therefore balance between surreal apparitions and parables rooted in the spirit of magical realism. More important to me than any unambiguous message is atmosphere, intuition, and the possibility of entering a world in which memory, nature, experience, and imagination begin to permeate one another.