Maja Platek

My work centres around the use of action photography and the expression of identity through languages, written and spoken. I aim to use the installation space as a medium; colour, and its meanings in ethnicity and self-identity; and the physical products of performance art.

For example, in one piece I am photographed performing a traditional dance from my homeland of Poland. In the dance, I am covered in the colours of the polish flag, just as the act of engaging in the traditions I grew up with immerses me in the colours of my homeland. The apparel worn in the dance is also displayed, allowing the viewer to observe the paint splashed onto the clothing, endlessly intricate, much the same as how our heritage’s influence on our identity is also endlessly intricate.

The accompanying poem is an expression of my feelings towards my culture and my desire to embrace and immerse myself in it, along with my doubts and fear as somebody who grew up away from my homeland, in being accepted externally as part of the culture that I know I belong to internally.

By using a small exhibition space and drawing attention away from the entrance, I transform my piece into its own gallery, separate from those around it, aiming to transport the viewer into a different world. This separate space, alien to its surroundings, reflects my cultural difference to those around me, and how the individual is a world unto themselves.