New Collection: Bloc.

My new collection of work is inspired by Poland and the role of Communism, which is something that I am continually drawn to. As I had mentioned briefly in a previous post that I was born in Warsaw, Poland and in 1986 my family "escaped" from what was then Communist Poland. However, I will expand on my family's journey in a later post, which I will post this upcoming week along with images from my BFA work.

This new collection of work has to do with some photos that I had taken this summer of what is considered to be typical Communist architecture. Here are just a few of the images that inspired this new collection (location: Nowa Huta in Krakow, Poland):



The role of architecture as well as the fundamental idea behind Communism was to unify people thus limiting the freedom of expression, which in the end would be mediated by the state in order to maintain the "integrity" of the collective. This type of architecture can be still found scattered all around Eastern Europe and Russia. In Poland people refer to this type of housing as a "blok"---the buildings are basically made from prefabricated concrete panels.

I was drawn to how these monotonous, grey, concrete buildings started to take on a new role post-Communism. It was interesting to see all these vibrant colored balconies and people trying to make their space their own (different and unique). In making this bloc collection, I wanted the shapes of each piece to depict the idea of this simple, uniformed Communist thought while the Baltic Amber symbolizes change. To me, each piece is like it's own little complex.

Here is a little preview of some of the pieces:



More of my "bloc" collection can be found on my Etsy shop: www.adarosman.etsy.com