Jolanta Brach-Czaina, MASKS, SHELLS, EASTER EGG.

What is it really that photographs show us? They mostly depict silhouettes, clothes, faces and hands. Or sometimes bare bodies on the beach. How does all of that relate to the living person, his or her presence in the constraining body? This relatively small living space is where the whole activity of our spirit, thoughts and emotions is created and concentrated. It is here that the experiences accumulate, slowly marking the surface of our body, giving it an ever new expression.
The common habit of taking photographs make the photo the main confirmation of our life and a record of the changes that we all undergo as the years pass. There are, of course, the documents: birth certificates, school report cards, marriage and divorce records, university diplomas, employment files and death certificates – all of which is dry dust, on the basis of which it is difficult to imagine the living person. An unexpectedly found old photo, however, can give direction to the functioning of our imagination. We see that uncle Leon was not at all the vigorous fatso as we would like to have imagined but a tall, lanky man, slightly stooping. The imposing truth of the bare eye leads our thoughts to new solutions of the old family feuds in which, as we have heard, uncle Leon took an active part. Now his role in these events will be new although we still will follow suspicions and fantasies.
What is it really that photographs show us? They mostly depict silhouettes, clothes, faces and hands. Or sometimes bare bodies on the beach. How does all of that relate to the living person, his or her presence in the constraining body? This relatively small living space is where the whole activity of our spirit, thoughts and emotions is created and concentrated. It is here that the experiences accumulate, slowly marking the surface of our body, giving it an ever new expression.
Whilst faces have files of their changes in the family albums – despite the fact that the documentation is somewhat imperfect – the elbows, thighs or feet leave no traces of their existence. And these parts also keep changing their shape, shedding off the old skin. These changes are not incidental, nor are they insignificant. The full, smooth thigh of a person living a happy and prosperous life starts to become limp and frail in result of the bad experiences. The skins changes colour and loses its smooth shine. Once a lively, peachy shade it turns greyish and does not cease to lose its healthy shine until a change of fate. Nobody registers these facts although it would be possible, after all, to take off this transparent chitin shield and, maintaining its original shape, note down the events recorded on the body. Skin has numerous layers and this harmless procedure would be profoundly advantageous to the memory of events. However, the dried casings, even with the original shape of the elbow or calf maintained, would still evoke the feeling of deadness and take us further away from the recollection of the live body which it surrounded. Therefore, it is better to rely on castings, on the masks taken off the belly, buttocks or back. Metal castings are unacceptable as their durability would make a joke of the human body. It would be best if these were like egg shells, delicate on the one hand, and colourful like Easter eggs on the other. The vivid colours would confirm the life underneath. The hidden or visible scars could be gathered in bundles and record the expressions of the body fragments – its joyous screams, mild hesitations and anger.

Jolanta Brach-Czaina, MASKS, SHELLS, EASTER EGGS, 2001.