David Jablonowski

In the work of David Jablonowski, worlds that are far apart in time and space come together. With supple ease the artist connects the contemporary image and information culture with ancient mythical worlds. In doing so, he combines diverse materials and objects: offset plates, photographs, ceramics, flat screens, steel and polystyrene foam. His work is unconventional and new, but at the same time a valid testimony of a broad and informed approach.
Disposition is a large, solid work, with the characteristics of a classic monument. However this is only one aspect. What the work actually shows is how skin carries a story. It’s about the patina of time, the traces of history. In short art as a narrative. The beauty is, that in this setting, it is linked directly back again to contemporary, visual culture and communication.
It is only on closer inspection that you realize how its physical presence misconceives. The large horizontal block is cut from polystyrene – foam, the floating columns are of plaster, and can weightlessly rotate. Any perceived weight vanishes. What remains is an image, nothing but a projection, clear, powerful and timeless.
Each artwork tells a story and is therefore also text, like a skin of characters, just not written literally. An insightful detail in this context: the gray sheet refers to the explanatory text that is often added to a work of art at exhibitions. Jablonowski replace it with an “image-text” in the form of a sheet with a gray scale gradient. It has the strength and the function of text, only stripped of its specific content. Is that not exactly our experience with the ancient texts and monuments?