Wojtek Ulrich

© Robert Lund, 26 Nov 2002

Born in 1963 in Lubin, Poland, Wojtek Ulrich studied at the Art Academy at Wroclaw and Duesseldorf Art Academy before moving to the United States in the early 1990's. His multi-media installations involving large metal sculptures, photography and video have been shown in galleries in Europe, Toronto, Chicago and in New York City, where he currently resides. His work explores questions of life and death, reality and illusion, and changing cultural factors in society throughout history.

Ulrich's current exhibition at New York's Caelum Gallery is entitled IMPLAND. A fictitious corporate logo bearing this name appears on each of the digitally manipulated images presented in light boxes. Inspired by the "United Colors of Benneton" campaign, the exhibit stimulates the viewer with images of flesh, beauty and decay, some with religious connotations, while the commercialized context directs the material to a different part of our minds – that which has been conditioned by our continual bombardment in the modern world by images whose sole purpose is to produce a desired result and then be forgotten, ready for the next input. Utilizing a familiar religious format, TRIPTYCH: ALTAR BY IMPLAND shows the female form scantily clad in raw meat, including the phrase "ignatius loyola, make haste to help me!". In STIGMATA, a baby girl examines the nail holes in her bandaged feet and hands, under the inscription "nobody knows what's best." In a separate room are two images of the remains of a mother and a child, ancient South American mummies photographed in a storage garage of Wakeros (grave robbers). These are facing two images of disemboweled stuffed animals, actual animal entrails contrasting with the soft furry bodies. According to the artist, the commercialization of such image by the corporate logo is intended to show "the futility of human hope for prolonged satisfaction" resulting from the lust for consumption in the modern artificially relaxed and comfortable life. "When the emotional tide produced by such visuals is gone, all that is left is loneliness," which is filled with external substance, producing pathological neuroses.

The purpose here is not unlike that of some of Ulrich's earlier works. In one of Ulrich's largest creations, RED RAIN (2000), a room-sized "inner sanctum" consists of a replica of a tiled bathhouse and bath, while blood drips from above, stirring thoughts of violence and ritual sacrifice. This setup is augmented by a nude woman who submerges herself in the blood-filled tub. She drowns herself in the blood, her suicidal act representing the one true sacrifice, setting her free to face the repulsive face of God. Death is presented as the only logical conclusion to life, a victory over its deconstruction by society that make it such a taboo to the living. This installation is three-fold, consisting of the physical set, and simultaneously displayed photos and video which are entitled BLOOD BATH.

THE BOAT (1998) is a three-metre hanging installation, a "lifeboat" whose body is constructed of dried dead fish. The frequent confusion of illusion and reality is highlighted by five video monitors facing upwards within the boat, showing underwater footage of fish swimming by. The viewer is challenged to separate illusion from experience.

In VIDEO PROJECTION ON A BLOCK OF ICE (1994), moving images are projected onto a surface which is continually melting away throughout the exhibit, showing pictures of a fetus within the womb on one side, contrasting with footage of battling pit bulls around the corner, and the viewer is left to deal with the combination of stimuli. The melting ice emphasizes the transient nature of the medium – the illusion lives on after the tool used to convey it is gone.

In these and many other works, Wojtek Ulrich has employed whatever media he feels best suited to express his ideas, and continues to avoid restricting himself to any particular style or format.