I am ugly and imperfect. I hate myself the most in the whole world. Every time I look in the mirror I don't see myself as I am, only more things to fix. I don't look at myself with love, a gaze full of warmth. Every glance at the next centimeters of my body and face makes me feel disgust and revulsion. I only think about how I could improve something in myself - or rather on myself.
I've already calculated - eyelashes in a week, botox in 10 days, a hairdresser and extensions in a month, boobs after firts pregnancy. Money? No problem. I will do anything to fill this burnt hole of self-hatred. No matter how much I improve in myself, the more I want to continue doing it. I am eternally insatiable. If I could, I would go into debt to improve my appearance. I constantly follow the latest news in aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery. Only common sense stops me from going under the knife asap.
My appearance is everything to me. What I see in the mirror and how others see me defines me as an individual. I believe that beauty can take you far in life.
I will never be enough.
I'm afraid to turn on the news because I don't want to hear about more global warming disasters. I do everything I can - I have a reusable water bottle, I don't buy food with palm oil, I've even given up my favorite avocado for the sake of our planet. However, when I go on social media, I feel like I live on another planet - celebrities in inhuman outfits posing for photos at a gala created just for them, influencers who tell me to run to the chain store for another micro trend that will bore everyone in a week.
I'm tired of imposing restrictions on myself, hypocritically advertised by the richest in the world. If only they decided to give away a small percentage of their wealth, they could feed the entire continent. I don't want to be limited and pointed at by others in favor of people who spend their Sunday walks in a private jet.
When I go into a store to buy a new T-shirt, I sigh deeply when I see that it was made in practically slave-like conditions. I shouldn't feel guilty about wanting to have something new and my own every once in a while. At the same time, I shouldn't support a business where employees often pay with their health and even their lives to feed their families.
I want to live in harmony with nature, but at the same time not feel pressured to be a pest. I want people to finally notice that we are not the problem.
In the era of gaining information about the reality surrounding us from mainstream media, i.e. television/internet, it is easy for us to get caught in smaller communities propagating all kinds of theories about life and the world we find ourselves in. They are often dictated by fear, lack of basic information and the desire to feel special/discoverer. Fear of the unknown is one of the basic reactions of a human being as a being, developed through years of duplicating patterns that allow us to develop. Conspiracy theories are, in a way, the aftermath of this primal fear found in us. Some people decide to lead their lives through a false creation of their reality, supported by knowledge created for them and their beliefs. In my opinion, conspiracy theories have the same basis as the need for religiosity. Being convinced of your own righteousness, a sense of exceptionalism (being watched, attacked by great global conspiracies, possessing secret knowledge that the mainstream information does not want to pass on to us) is embellished with false research, often using cherry picking, and support from like-minded people.
In recent years, the development of technology has exceeded the expectations of any people. It is difficult to find an object in the home that does not have a "smart" function. Since our race, like any other, is constantly evolving, the fact that it has become our daily routine to sit in front of a screen for many hours means that our bodies are slowly trying to adapt to this reality. The visualizations of the "man of the future" published by scientists are both terrifying and interesting. At the same time, we are at a stage where technology surrounds us on every side and we are unable to escape it.
Through our project, we show our interpretation of the man of the future, possessed by the latest technologies. We want to alert the audience that by becoming subject to objects, we are slowly losing our humanity, turning into a deformed, humanoid version of ourselves.
Justyna Leszkowicz
Born in 1992 in Suwałki, currently lives and works in Warsaw. Student of the the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, specializing in Graphics. Member of Prześwit, a Warsaw art collective. Participant of national and international exhibitions, scholarships holder, laureate of Polish and international painting and graphic competitions.
Kasia Iwańczuk
An artist whose work revolves around social and psychological themes. Her works focus on evoking strong emotions and reflection in the recipient, using colour and material as a key means of communication and building specific moods. An important element of her art is a sense of uncertainty, which she tries to instill in the recipients, provoking them to reflect on the surrounding reality and their own experiences. Kasia Iwańczuk strives to create works that surprise and at the same time provoke introspection and in-depth analysis. Her portfolio includes exhibitions in Toruń, Rzeszów, Lublin, Ostrava and Warsaw.
Michalina Chmielewska
In her work, she touches on the topics of family and broadly understood relationships. She translates her thoughts on social issues into a visual form, moving towards synthetic surrealism. She often uses colors or motifs associated with "childishness" juxtaposed with an unnatural environment or transformation. The main goal of her work is to convey emotions that are difficult to describe with words into an image that does not have to be interpreted or named.
