THE DISPLACED REALITIES  

What is reality? How much can we perceive? Can we go beyond the limits of our senses? What is beyond the borders of the known? Is the world only an illusionary projection of our mind? All these questions touch the fundamental problem of recognition and the instruments we posses to achieve it during our travel in space and time. The questions spring up from our wish to touch the unreachable and from our attempts to surpass our limits.

The impression of discord and dissonance is one of the first we experience when watching Dariusz Glowacki's pictures. The pictures often show things taken from everyday life like: cups, plates, forks, spoons, and teapots. The objects are painted in an almost illusionary way. The concreteness of the things is always confronted with a synthetic and abstract surface of a color. Their isolation in an empty and clear background is not only a need of esthetic and manipulation. The function of the color is to emphasize some imperfection of the painted objects. They are always incomplete, deficient and cut. They escape from our expectations and the longing to see them in a complete, ordinary way.  

It is obvious the artist's pictures refer to still life painting tradition. The tradition to paint objects of everyday life has accompanied us since ancient times. Probably the best time for still life was in the 17th century in Holland and Flanders. The tradition revealed its strongest sides again in the art of P. Cezanne, P. Picasso, H. Matisse and G. Morandi. In contemporary art many artists prefer themes connected with biological and social status of human beings. Dariusz Glowacki undertook the trial to express ideas through the objects of the daily life and the result seems to be very fresh and striking. In his picture he sets one tradition in contrast with another. In effect we get a visual mixture of realism painting ("The silver"), Japanese esthetics of pure forms and colors ("The black kettle") and mysticism of Georgio Morandi's still lifes. We are very often surprised and have some problems to fix our eyes on canvas' surface as its content goes beyond the way we are used to seeing things. 

The first reason to paint pictures is undoubtedly the artist's enchantment and respect towards the world and objects we touch everyday. He paints them to pay a somewhat ironic tribute to things (that is why he uses so often gold and silver). However when he chooses the things usually neglected and treated only in a functional way, he does not consider their visual appearances. He glorifies them to obtain their symbolic content. They are not the tools we use to eat anymore. In the artist's picture the cups, plates and spoons are always empty so their practical application is not that important. The artist says the objects are witnesses of almost every meeting and conversation. This is one of the reasons he cuts them, covers and makes the upturned dissonances. It is a reflection of our opinions, estimations or sentences we say. They are rarely complete and clear. It does not matter if we shout or whisper them. Very often they are only a substitution of communication. The harshness of articulation, the banality of statement, the triviality of repeated truths finds its representation in Dariusz Glowacki's pictures. But there is much more than that. In the images he produces we may find also willingness to review our outlook and ability to learn. It is something optimistic that we have a chance to revalue our point of view and a chance to fit together sometimes very different realities. This is what is visible in pictures like "Four" and "Displaced". In the picture titled "Black, white and red" a red passionate background above kettles strengthens the opposition between them. Their shadow is golden and it reconciles the quarrel of objects, which are only the negatives of each other. Just below them there is a colorful and a vibrating part that is not important for the black and white

Dariusz Glowacki's pictures touch the essence of recognition and human being's limits to perceive the world. Our senses are not the sufficient instruments to learn the world. But they are everything we have to face it. An imperfection of the senses (especially of the eyesight that is the most responsible for the information we get but that cannot see the full light spectrum) is evident. The recognition of the world and the ability to create clear messages and full understanding of other beings is doubtful. Anyway, we can discuss our limits and express curiosity the reality awakes. These are most likely the main sources of Glowacki's art. The attempt to investigate the nature of reality is always present in his works. It does not matter if he makes an object or paint a picture. There is always an inclination to cross the limits on the one side and disbelief in acknowledged convictions and cultural clichés on the other. It is an example of art where a visual impression can start an individual attempt to search the world. It may appear that it is enough to take a common teaspoon to begin a trip of learning and questioning. The universe starts just at the edge of our daily-life table.  kettle.