Two memories of one mother's death, room 3
One of five installations made of handmade paper with different scents and materials associated with specific memories and rituals, which co-exists with books and video.

ROOM 3

Scent of flowers

Installation consisting of 2 objects, 49 pages
dimensions of objects: 300 x 150 cm; 300 x 140 cm
size of a single page: 42 x 29,7 cm
material: Chinese peonies, chrysanthemums, roses, Madonna lilies from discarded bouquets, home gardens and from flower petals collected for scattering during processions
technique: handmade paper, own technique


The theme of Barbara Mydlak’s works explores the removal and modification of difficult memories through the conscious repetition of them.
In addition to the two-volume dissertation, which presents both scientific and poetic perspectives, Mydlak created five handmade paper installations.
These installations were designed for specific places for her family home, the layout of which is featured on the cover of the five small books that accompany the thesis.

These handmade paper installations take the form of curtains constructed from a total of 2,000 one-of-a-kind pages of different sizes.
Each curtain is made from specific materials associated with memories of a particular space: herbal mixtures, flowers, pine needles, burnt books mixed with candle wax, and mourning clothes, all having the intense scents that may trigger recollections.

These large-scale books have been written without words but with the nature of hydrogen bonds, while guiding the process through hand gesture, water flow, and physical interactions. You can read them once the light exposes their fibrous skeleton.
Curtains, symbolically, exist ‘in between’ on the boundary of worlds – separating ‘the living’ from ‘the dead’, ‘the past’ from ‘the present’, ‘here’ and ‘there’ and giving the special meaning to the spaces they divide.
They can conceal an ‘alternate reality’, create intimacy and are crucial in theater for separating the ‘fictional’ from ‘the real’, as well as the stage from the audience. They serve a technical role by hiding stage preparations and marking ‘the beginning’ and ‘end’ of spectacle. By lifting the curtain, the audience becomes observers or active participants in the event.

The installation is part of Barbara Mydlak’s PhD completed at the Faculty of Painting and Drawing, Abakanowicz University of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland
Dissertation Promoter: Prof. dr hab. Anna Goebel

More information soon...