I Don’t Want to Call You Orphaned

Marianka Grabska’s installation refers to many people’s need for a separate word meaning a person who lost a child, for example as a result of a miscarriage. The project was directly caused by the artist’s personal relationship with such a person and related to her own maternity. The initial assumption that the term would be introduced to the Polish language as a result of an extended process involving interviews with the bereaved, therapists and linguists (a word equivalent to the international term vilomah) was later directed towards the construction of an object-installation representing and in a way – paradoxically – explaining its absence. 

THE WASHING MACHINE IS WORKING IN ONE MODE, WITHOUT WATER INTAKE. WATER INSIDE, WITH CLOTHES AND A STONE. 
THE SOUND OF THE BOUNCING STONE IS HEARD.
THE WASHING MACHINE IS SPINNING. THE OBJECTS INSIDE IT ARE: KNICKERS, SOCKS, TROUSERS, A SHIRT, SWEATSHIRT AND STONE.
YOU PUT STONES IN POCKETS WHEN YOU WANT TO DROWN.
WASHING CLOTHES IS AN EVERYDAY ACTIVITY.
THE SPINNING WASHING MACHINE.
MONOTONY.
I WOULD LIKE TO GET A NOISE OUT OF THAT STONE – A SOUND.
A WORD IS ALSO A SOUND.
A NOISE IS A SOUND WHICH CALLS AND HAILS PEOPLE AT THE SAME TIME, CAUSING GENERAL COMMOTION.
BUT IT IS ALSO A SOUND OF HITTING, FALLING, SHOOTING.
A PERSON WHO LOSES A CHILD FACES AND FIGHTS GREAT EMOTIONS.
ANGER, STONING OF SPACE, FATE, GOD.
THROWING IS A SITUATION WHICH INSPIRES ME.
A WOUND – ETERNAL DEEP WOUND.
LIFE LINE. THE CHILD’S LIFE LINE IS TRANSFERRED TO THE PARENT AND STAYS THERE. 

Marianka Grabska graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Faculty of Sculpture and Intermedia. She won a scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2018. She participated in the 16th International Triennial of Tapestry (2019) and 5th Young Wolves Festival (2018). She creates sculptures, objects, installations. She is involved in socially committed art.