Zofia Kulik
1947, Wrocław, lives in Łomianki, Poland
Self-portrait with the Palace, 1990
multiple exposure photo collage
I am enclosed in a form of mandorla (vesica piscis).
In my hands I have the metal crowning of a banner-staff (“sharp flag-pole finials,” Kim Levin, 1990).
Photograms of two stars “veil” my body. The upper star is red.
The whole composition is based on a baroque painting, The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, 1630, parish church in Pszczew.
As the crown I use an upside-down image of the Palace of Culture and Science (my photo of 1971), the tallest building in Warsaw (“a Stalin-Gothic confection,” Richard Hornik, Time, 2000).
One side of the square base of the Palace is as long as its height – a fundamental difference to the Western “thin” skyscrapers (economy of building ground).
As angels – Zbigniew Libera (my model 1987–1990).
Zofia Kulik