If I want to say anything I use words which are usually taken from a different context. In general they keep their original meanings, but in particular they acquire new sense because of their contextual change. These words are more or less suitable to point out some aspects of my interest, but often it is difficult or almost impossible to find the right words to express what should really be expressed. They are too simple or too complex, too pathetic or too obvious, too precise or too enigmatic. In fact they are mostly wrong and confusing, nevertheless I still have to use them.

In my work I use images, objects and sounds which are usually also taken from a different context. Like words some of them still keep their original meanings, some others get new meaning because of the change of their context. However, in both cases there are often small 'gaps' between all these images, objects and sounds and their original or given meanings, as well as between the meanings and all possible sense I want them to generate. These small 'in-between-gaps' affect the work as much as - for example - quotation marks affect the meaning and sense of a sentence. Since they are almost invisible everything looks the same, but nothing is the same anymore. First, because all elements of the work are losing their identity, second, because all fiducial points are dissipating. Therefore the structure of relations and dependences among the elements of the work as well as its logical structure become corrupted. Corruption involves the inner system of values of the work, but it is not destructive for the work itself. It is more a kind of clearance which gives access to unexpected insights into another logic and different system of values that transforms meanings and sense.

All these changes are not spectacular. On the contrary, they take very discreet courses. I am not able to control them. As a matter of fact I do not even know when, where and how they happen. The less I do understand them, the more 'real' they seem to be.

Jaroslaw Kozlowski

November 1989