Pink is soothing. Nanazenit in Warsaw recently showed Pink, a solo exhibition by Zbiok Czajkowski, presenting an all-new body of work inspired by Aleksander Schauss's research on understanding people's psychological states based on the colors. Czajowski took inspiration from Schauss who, positing that color could produce emotional and hormonal changes, persuaded a Naval correctional institute to paint some jail cells pink to determine its effects on prisoners.
Taking the research results as a starting point and the pillar of his concept, Czajkowski uses his creative practice as a form of autotherapy. While Sr. Schauss observed “a marked effect on lowering the heart rate, pulse and respiration,” the artist decided to contrast it with opposing color and imagery. The artist’s absolutely wild body of work is dressed in colorful abstracted detail and patterns, careening around surreal, psychedelic landscapes and narratives. "In my paintings, I surround behaviors that I do not accept with pink," he says. "I surround objects identified with physical and symbolic violence with pink. I use pink as a tool for metaphorical pacification of various shafts. I treat chauvinists, sexists, racists, violent people, fascists, and the rest of the scum that I don't agree with, with pink."
Fascinated by the contrast between the strength of pink sedation and the man's fear is at the core of the images, which swirl soft gradients and warm hues against sharp, fleshy, or firey imagery. A kaleidoscope of imagery, the pieces include Dali-like's surreal visions, elements of folk art, comics, cartoons, and graffiti. Playing with both the symbolics of the imagery and the composition of the work, the pieces appear very appealing and friendly at first and start revealing their underlying eerieness upon closer inspection. —Sasha Bogojev
