Constructs of civilisation and the metaphysics of transfiguration in the work of Romana Kaszczyc

Abstract

Romana Kaszczyc – an artist concerned with nature, borderlands, peripheries, the West Pomeranian and Lubusz lands, the Barlinecka Wilderness – dissolves in her work the ontological dimension of borders, while bringing into play the perspectives of neighbourhood relations, interdependence and diversity. Wilderness endures, irrespective of the conventional borders marked on the administrative map of Poland. However, it is also worth raising the question of whether culture is becoming – by greedily expanding its territory – nature’s neighbour, or perhaps its oppressor? In her work, Roma Barlinecka creates a world in which social patterns and roles become a prison. Whereas, the coexisting binary reality of night and day, darkness and illumination, life and death is metaphysical in the artist’s eyes. Thus, is the border transcendent, epistemological and independent of man? Above all, I would not only like to commemorate a worthy artist who consciously chose to live in the borderlands, but also to look at the border itself, and how antagonisms between culture and nature, centre and periphery, global recognition and regionality are generated and constituted.

Notwithstanding the goals above, the main research objective is to develop an interpretation of selected culture-themed texts by Romana Kaszczyc in the light of considerations of the semantic experience of the borderland. I will present a critical study of literary and plastic works from a neo-regional and ecocritical perspective. The interpretations shall induce deliberations on neighbourhood relations, border and ecocide. Research inspirations will be drawn from the scholarly output of, among others: Julia Fiedorczuk, Aleksandra Ubertowska, Tatiana Czerska, Elżbieta Rybicka.