Perforal

A peculiar, at first glance, quite abstract work in sandstone by Swietlana Zerling. The artist received an award for this piece in a competition for a sculpture for the city of Sopot in 1979. Analysing the shape more closely, you will notice the symbolic imprint of a human figure. The artist was interested in this theme for many years and executed it in various series of her works. The full-figure Cases: for love, desires, reverie, good dreams, despair, loneliness and motherhood. In a statement from 1974, she called them “cases for various states and circumstances of our psyche.” This series depicted human figures with symbolic holes hollowed out or cut out. Perforals was the next series of works, made in the 1980s in various materials, in which the usually abstract motif of the human figure imprint appears. In the meantime, Swietlana Zerling created relief representations, the most famous of which adorned the Żabianka housing estate in Gdańsk (many have not survived).

Swietlana Zerling was born in 1945 in Kitzbühel, Austria. She studied at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, in the studios of professors Stanisław Horno-Popławski and Alfred Wiśniewski, where she obtained her diploma in 1972. She has participated in international ceramics exhibitions. A member of the renowned Kadyny group, active in the 1970s. Her work includes sculpture and ceramics.

Author: Switłana Zerling (1945-)
Date: 1979
Technique: sandstone