“Growing” is a project by Jakub Amadeusz Biewald, which he began in 2014 as part of his diploma project defended at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. It consists of ceramic sculptural forms made using the so-called coil-building method. This involves adding one coil after another and joining each subsequent one to the growing form. If the joins are not smoothed over, a larger number of coils, arranged one on top of another, will in themselves create an interesting structure.
The sculptures were inspired by phenomena and processes occurring in nature. According to Jakub Biewald, the creative process “is an analogy to growth in plants, animals, soils, rocks and other natural materials. The way something grows affects its structure—successive layers or segments are formed, and ceramic forms are created in a similar way, growing from coils or slabs. It is the organicity of the structure, recording the process of growth, that determines the organicity of the form.
Growth co-creates the structure with destruction, with which it is inseparably connected, complementing each other. It is often through destruction that we can see the internal construction of forms.
In the contemporary art world, increasingly based on controversial concepts, the pursuit of innovation and modern technologies, the traditional sculptural object is becoming a relic of bygone eras, a living fossil. Therefore, through their simplicity of expression, naturalness and primitivism, sculptural objects seem to be the most mysterious, reaching back to the sources of creativity.
Jakub Biewald, a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, specialising in Sculpture and Spatial Activities, with a specialisation in Ceramics completed with distinction for his diploma project. Winner of the A. Ryszka Award for the best student in the Sculpture programme. Participant in classes in the Photographer programme at CKU in Toruń. Currently a doctoral student at the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass of the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. In his artistic work, he uses various media, from drawing, painting and photography to sculptural objects and installations. Ceramics is the principal material in his spatial work. Initiator of annual sculpture workshops in Wąbrzeźno.
The exhibition will be open until 20 January 2017.