DAGMARA GENDA

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WALLPAPER DRAWINGS

During my MFA I became interested in wallpaper as a substructure for my drawings, because it is a strange in-between space that can make rooms feel claustrophobic, rich or impoverished. I was using wallpaper designs similar to what I found in my old family photos from Poland. On a photograph of an Eastern European home, the wallpaper looks back-dated and poor, drawn onto paper it becomes baroque.

After drawing a wallpaper "grid," I started pouring, brushing and splattering paint atop it. I would later trace this paint, weaving it in and out of the underlying pattern and layering until the work felt finished. The weaving into an underlying pattern, as well as the strategy of pareidolia, gave me permission to create certain types of images that might be seen as illustrative, low-brow or stylized. For me, it was a means of adapting the different, fluid aspects of what I suppose we'd call my identity: Polish immigrant, Canadian, working-class, lack of belonging.

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