Monday ARTIST //Zbigniew Libera

Zbigniew Libera- Polish artist born in 1959

images preceding the artist portrait are from a 2002-2003 series titled "Positives", all images taken from the artist's website here:

http://raster.art.pl/gallery/artists/libera/libera.htm

description of "Positives" from artist's website:

Positives, 2002-2003
Series of staged photographs, printed and reproduced photographically

Series of photographs restaging the famous historical press photos in a "positive version" - repeating the original in terms of composition, but changing the characters and the general meaning of the captured events. "The series is another attempt at playing with trauma" Libera comments, "we are always dealing with memorized objects, not the objects themselves. I wanted to employ this mechanism of seeing and remembering and touch upon the phenomenon of memory's afterimages. This is how we actually perceive those photographs ["Positives"] - the harmless scenes trigger flashbacks of the brutal originals. I have picked the "negatives" from my own memory, from among the images I remembered from the childhood."

playing with the cultural memory, trauma, and media coverage, I feel as if i've found an artist that truly works with similar ideas and in a similar manner as I do. by manipulating images from the past, Libera offers works that play heavily on the experience of the viewer and their own feelings about the past. I am interested often in figuring out similar modes in my own work. While my current project does not fall into the same category or rely upon the same emotional notes and Libera's work, I feel that by looking at his handling of graphic and emotionally charged works, and his willingness to handle controversial material I might be able to further my own skills in presenting subtle and smart artworks that handle issues of similar weight.

Really what i value most across his works is his willingness to confront the viewer with uncomfortable subject matter. To do it in a smart way, to do it in a way that provokes and to do it at all. I see him as a brave inspiration and will continue to follow his works for the foreseeable future.