Order from Chaos

2015
“Order from Chaos”, Gallery Le Guern, Warsaw

Dorota Podlaska work for the ‘Porządek z chaosu/Order from Chaos’ exhibition at Le Guern Gallery was one of the key highlights of a show dominated by the painting medium. The main material (edible jelly) used by the artist was the foundation for the combination of sculpture and painting elements, complemented with such additional foodstuffs as fruit, vegetables, or pork smoked sausages. As intended by the artist, all the elements of her modular work were meant for consumption.

The jelly as such, used by Podlaska for a couple of years, is the very essence of tension between form and anti-form. Liquid warm matter can be formed into any possible shapes under the influence of low temperature. It is always served ‘cold’, and when exposed to high temperature, it gets liquidised again, losing its form. Hence, Podlaska’s works have to be interpreted in cosmogonic categories as the origin of form built from hectic matter and energy. On the other hand, it should also be treated as a work that is subject to slow destruction, to external factors, and human actions.

The essence of visually and conceptually refined objects created by Podlaska is the question of taste. The artist, sensitive to culinary and aesthetic preferences of various connoisseurs, has utilised various forms, colours and flavours to prepare food for the  body and soul’ of wide audience actively participating in her cooking performance held during the vernissage.

Michał Jachuła, 2015