Raster

Jan Tomza Osiecki

07 Feb - 28 Mar 2015

JAN TOMZA OSIECKI
ISPC
7 February – 28 March 2015

Jan Tomza-​Osiecki is part of a generation for whom the inten­sive experience of vir­tual reality – via new media, the Inter­net, simple program­ming lan­guages, gaming, and 3D graphics and design – is key to creating works of art. His own works are a con­scien­tious and thorough reac­tion to the cul­ture of proxies and the ethereal. Tomza-Osiecki’s point of depar­ture is the abs­tract sculp­tural form, which he animates through the introduc­tion of sound, endowing it with real­ness and dynamism. The acronym in the title – ISPC – stands for the Integration of Sonic and Physical Com­position. The func­tioning of the artist’s interac­tive objects is based on a feed­back effect, which is typically con­sidered undesirable among engineers. Elec­trical sys­tems of microphones and speakers built within the sculp­tural mass work together, emit­ting a range of uncon­trol­led grin­ding, screeching, whir­ring and vibration: touch becomes ten­sion, ten­sion becomes sound, sound becomes movement. Cer­tain objects manufac­tured with a meticulous hand out of luthier wood are instruments of sorts, giving the audience a chance at their own improvisation. The noisome issue of feed­back is now at the heart of the object’s pur­pose, opening up the field of experimen­tation and creating possibilities for gaining a new under­stan­ding for familiar spaces and the movement’s of one’s own body.

The show presents a series of works from the past several years – from an abs­tract study in clay and his graduate project instal­lation, through his newest interac­tive objects, shown for the first time. The sequence illustrates the artist’s con­cep­tual evolution, fol­lowing how sculp­tural elements, the interac­tive layer of sound and a studied form – in both its material and design aspects – approach a progres­sively per­fec­ted effect of syn­thesis. At the same time the inten­sification of various stimuli – touch, audio and visual – is an attempt to evoke the fun­damen­tal experience of physicality, of genuine physical movement, time and space.

Tomza-Osiecki’s pur­suits simul­taneously draw upon the possibilities affor­ded by the latest tech­nologies and traditional materials. They con­tain in equal measure a lon­ging for pure, avant-​garde experimen­tation and a faith in the form traditionally viewed as a syn­thesis of creativity and matter.

Jan Tomza-​Osiecki (born 1985) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw’s Depart­ment of Sculp­ture (graduated 2012), Univer­sity Col­lege Fal­mouth and the SAE Institute London in the Sound Engineering Depart­ment. He was a resident of the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2014 he had an solo show at the BWA Gal­lery in Zielona Góra.
 

Tags: Li Ming