An Artwork A Week: Magdalena Bors
Currently on show at the Little Deer Tracks cafe, Coburg is a group show of local artists. The showstopper is Magdalena Bors’ photography. One photograph by the RMIT graduate is featured, ‘Woodland Scene’ (2006), from the Homeland series, and it’s a stand out for several reasons.
Sitting on a black and red couch is a woman knitting. She wears black and we can only see her hands and legs, not her face. She knits a fluffy green yarn which trails onto the carpet and under the coffee table where it forms the forest floor of the afore mentioned woodland scene. Complete with miniature cone trees, a blue wool stream, soft red and yellow flowers, hills and a hot afternoon sun shining through, there is nothing missing from this fantasy. The scene is laid upon a carpet of browns and greens, the very same carpet on which my feet rest.
Writing of her work Magdalena explains her intention is to create something sublime from everyday materials and settings. The painstaking aspect of staging these photographs takes centre stage of her current series titled The Seventh Day. I love the work that has gone into this photograph, I love spotting the details and wondering at how it was done. The strong narrative element means the viewer doesn’t tire of looking at ‘Woodland Scene’. I can imagine who might live among the brightly lit hills, how they respond to their surroundings growing from the constant attention of the lonely knitter, or whether they’ve even had a problem with tea showers from above? These things carry me away; however, sublimity is not among them.
When I think of the sublime I do tend towards the art historical examples like Casper David Friedrich and to an extent, more recently, the landscapes of Bill Henson. The sublime as I understand it is a response to nature, one which consists of awe, fear and/or and overwhelming sense of our smallness and finitude. What I experience in Magdalena’s photography is the reverse, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. We are no longer overwhelmed by nature in the Homeland scenes, we are dominating, creating and shaping the external world – far from experiencing our finitude we are actually closer to the role of a god. The low vantage point from which ‘Woodland Scene’ is shot means we relate more to the fantastical world, and less with its lonely creator, so in this respect we are experiencing a sense of awe.
I think these apparent contradictions with the artist’s stated intensions don’t detract at all from the work. The idea that we are shaping our world, that human influence on the environment is everywhere is an old but important theme. Magdalena captures this beautifully through her emphasis on crafts like crochet, knitting, paper sculpture and cake decoration. The feminine aspect to the Homeland series references conversely the way (and this is the feminist in me speaking) certain men, throughout history, have wrought such damage on the planet. Perhaps Magdalena is subtly suggesting that we take a softer approach?
This is not to suggest that there’s no male presence in the artist’s work, far from it. The Seventh Day features two surreal landscapes with men admiring the work of many hours of labour. ‘Reef’ (2010) is one such image, and as the name suggests the creator has constructed a reef from many many puzzle pieces, which appear so complete at first that it took me a moment to realise the carpet was composed of puzzle pieces as well.
Noting the time intense aspect of these works brings me the last aspect of why Magdalena’s photograph was the stand out: I just love seeing a labour of love, with attention to detail and sense of complete absorption that this brings. The interior settings hint at these creative lives and how some crafts and passions can completely derail a room. Magdalena notes that “while the resulting landscapes are rich in detail, craftsmanship and beauty, they serve no apparent purpose to their creators, revealing a sad futility to their monstrous efforts”.
Above: Magdalena Bors, ‘Woodland Scene’, 2006, pigment print, 70x70.
Image: Rough Stock Studios.
For more Artwork A Week click the link at the top of the screen. In the past the name has rung true to form, however now it is just a name (An Artwork Whenever I have the Time, doesn’t have the same ring to it. My aim with this series is to encourage myself and you as well to visit new galleries and seek out a painting after you’ve read a little bit about it. An Artwork A Week also highlights the artworks on display at the moment, as well as those which are visiting our shores and in our collections.
One final incentive to go and see Magdalena’ Bors’ work: Little Deer Tracks (44 O’Hea Street, Coburg) is filled with delicious food as well as delicious art. Home made noms to nom nom.
