Eye and Hand…
The works of Bogumila Strojna surprise visitors in more ways than one. They puzzle the observer through their subtle changes. Geometric shapes, such as squares and cubes, are seen to evolve from their pure form to their avatars. The most familiar manufactured materials, like iron bars, plastic tubes and wooden blocks, are, instead of serving their usual functions, used to induce emotions. Placed within a constructed space or set out in an urban environment, these sculptures, in spite of or because of their reduced size, provoke rich debate to do with architecture and nature alike.
The varied creations of this artist are full of fruitful contractions. They are both open and closed, full and empty, constructed yet naturally alive. Each one offers a visual experience developed from an arrangement of shapes. However, all formality is avoided in favour of a journey into different poetic worlds.
The importance of « ready made » materials should be stated, particularly tubes of coloured plastic. Chosen for their strong visual effects, these industrial materials are used in crafted way. In a recent structure (September 2008), placed in a garden of the 11th arrondissement, tubes of red plastic were intertwined to create a giant jersey upon the green grass to surprise and delight the eyes of passers-by. The twisted tube was originally designed as a technical material, of course, but the sculptress does not see this function; rather all of its positive potential and, above all, its industrially produced colour. The material brought in, in all its colour, stimulates the environment. Its diverse qualities juxtapose the green of the grass. This choice of "imported colour" (or "ready made colour" as it was termed by Antoine Perrot and Claude Briand-Picard) is not always a feature of Bogumila Strojna’s work; in certain works, like Stranglehold, 2007, she continues to use colour (still red) in a traditional way, the paint hereby serving to cover the materials. However, this use of raw materials, assembled in their "juice", seems to be commonplace and to represent a significant advance in recent creations: colour is no longer added but is present because it belongs intimately to the materials (Yes – but no/no – but yes, 2006). The tube is red, just as the grass is green, the wood light brown and the iron bar dark grey. Whether it be painted or intrinsic, colour strengthens the spacialization and eroticization of the sculptured elements. Concrete art is not cold.
In other works by Bogumila Strojna, games of opposition are played out between the transparency and suppleness of the plastic tubes and the rigid opaqueness of the metallic structures that they extend. This is often the case, as is indicated in the title of a 2005 piece Contrary to appearances: the rigid becomes supple whilst the supple becomes tense. The plastic creations of this artist force us to open our eyes to the tactile qualities of objects, shapes and colours, and the malleability of materials. Her eye has gleaned the potentialities and her hand, guided by an ingenious spirit, has fashioned the different elements in order that observers perceive them differently. This "different" look opens up the imagination. Such a creation makes one stop and dream; in other words, one sees associations whose significance goes beyond what can be expressed in language. All of Bogumila Strojna’s art, with its simple appearances and ordinary materials, appeals to the eye and puts mere words to flight.
Jean Claude Le Gouic, March 2009
