Anna Chmiel

Portfolio

Artist Statement

The main question I am asking myself today is: Is ecological coexistence of man with others and with nature possible? And if so, how should we work on it? How do we practise it, and how do we talk about it?

so that we can pass on this knowledge and experience to others?

I feel an almost obsessive need to be outdoors. I create impressionistic, colourful notes in sketchbooks, photographs, field recordings. For me, the outdoors means being in nature with my whole self, with all my senses. I use photographs, but I also need to get my senses and brain to concentrate and remember what I have seen, heard and felt. The image that is later created has a record of time, place, time of day and time of year, it carries emotions, reflections, presence, history and memory.

In an era of crisis and climate change, landscape painting, especially

plein air and field recording, is changing its context. I feel that this is my homage to the beauty of nature and it has its reverse and that is the spectre of doom.

Internally I am working on the task of accommodating and elevating these two realities within myself. The most important task is not to close my eyes, ears and heart.

To feel and reflect, withstanding the tension.

Rivers Sisters

In the pandemic, I have strengthened ties with Cecilia Malik, the Sisters of the Rivers collective

and the Save the Rivers Coalition.

This year marks five years of protests against the E40 waterway.

The Vistula and other rivers of Europe are still threatened with disaster.

In the village of Myscowa, in the Beskid Niski, we are protesting against the construction of the Kąty-Myscowa artificial water reservoir. The village is threatened with displacement, the Wisłoka River may be devastated

Wisłoka river may be devastated, Magurski National Park will be exposed to flooding.

Rivers Sisters

We want a Bridge Not a Dam

Rivers Sisters

On joint trips with the Rivers Sisters, I often try to preserve people's stories, and an audio record of events.

Mrs Danusia from the village of Mycowa, in the Low Beskids, tells the story of her family, village and surroundings.

Listen.

I recorded this interview during the public consultation that the Sisters of the Rivers, conducted on 9-11 September 2020. The talks were about the voice of the inhabitants of the village of Myscowa and the plan to build the Kąty-Myscowa dam.

Rivers Sisters

In 2021, we celebrated World Rivers Day on the Oder River - celebrating the breaking up of the dykes and giving space back to the river. Skirts sewn from a circle became a symbol of the river's dynamism, because the river can be, calm and narrow, or it can spill over taking up a huge space. In the photos you can see the skirt I painted with the Oder crane.

Sadly, a year later I was one of the co-organisers of the Funeral March for the Oder in Warsaw.

The touching finale of our activities for the Oder, was the grassroots initiative of a charity auction for the Oder, December, 2022. I felt the connection between art and activism even more strongly then.

I also run the Rivers Sisters profile on Instagram, feel free to visit.

Rivers Sisters

Rivers Sisters

Rivers Sisters

Rivers Sisters

Sisters Rivers and Water in the Landscape

Sisters of the River stimulates me to be creative as a group and individually.

In protests I am interested in the constructive criticism and education that imagery and happenings bring. The exchange of ideas, impressions, collaboration with female artists and activists and academics, has become one of the key practices in the past years. I feel that collectively we are looking for a new, simpler language to talk about nature and the coexistence of people and nature.

Based on these experiences, I keep asking myself what is a landscape and what is an ecosystem?

On the basis of these experiences, a series of paintings, and sound sketches, under the title "Water in the Landscape" has been created and continues to develop.

I always try to make a note of my impressions while in nature.

Water in the landscape

Water in the landscape

Water in the landscape

Water in the landscape

Water in the landscape

Moss draws me in. It's mesmerising, beautiful and a bit of a mystery. Mosses and lichens are detectors of air and water purity.

Figuratively and literally, I've been bent on mosses

and lichens for years.

Water in the landscape

Water in the landscape

Water in the landscape

Flow

A series of paintings of abstractions on paper alluding to water as a symbol of the state of flow, or flow. This state was explored

and described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

The series was created between 2017 and 2019.

Flow

Flow czyli przepływ

Oil and Water

liquid light show

In the analogue animations water oil I draw on my experience as a painter and my knowledge of technology and binders. Through this medium I try to relate to the flow series. I am inspired by the natural world, its constant flow,

changeability and interaction.

Bio / cv

Anna Chmiel

ur.1979.

Kraków, Polska.

chmiel.anna@gmail.com.

annachmiel.com

Instagram

obszar działania

• Painting
• Multimedia
  
• analogue animations
  
• Activism for the planet and especially rivers, acting in the Sisters of the River collective.
  
• Fieldrecording, deep listening
  
• Personal development and practices at the intersection of art, psychology, philosophy,
  
• spirituality.
  

Practice, Experience

• Painting practice / 2006- ongoing
  
• Sisters of the Rivers collective / 2019 ongoing
  
• I have been involved in the creative activities, protests, exhibitions, of the Krakow-based activist/art collective Sisters of the Rivers.
  
• Salt Storehouse and CCA Squirrel / 2021 ongoing In mid-April I move in and join the Artists of Salt Storehouse in Krakow. Part of being part of this community is interacting with the CCA Squirrel. Last year I was one of the artists invited to participate in activities related to the year of Stanislaw Lem.
  
• Art conservation/painting conservation
  
• 2004- 2021 Kraków.
  
• From the fourth year of my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, in the faculty of WKiRDS, I was involved in many conservation projects. These included large team projects such as paintings from the cloisters of the Dominican church in Krakow. Work on works by such Lower Silesian masters as Martin Willmann; and individual work on the conservation of paintings by Polish painters.
  
• In 2005, I participated in a month-long student internship at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Museum.
  

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education

Individual exhibitions

• 2022 'Water in the Landscape' Gallery of the Gdynia Film Centre.
• 2022 Analogue Animations during a concert at the Art La Trans Festival.
  
• 2022 "In the circle of tea" online exhibition, Third Eye Gallery
  
• 2020 "Exhibition of watercolours" Krakow, Nad&Greg,
  
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• 2021 "Sowing intentions" for Sisters of the Rivers, creative action in pandemic
  
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• 2020- "Sowing intentions"- creative action at home and at women's circles online, during lockdown
  
• 2019 "Flow or flow", Krakow, Two Drops
  
• 2018 "Meeting" Krakow, Third Eye Gallery
  
• 2018 "Meeting" Kielce, Sklep ze Sztuką Gallery
  
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• 2017 "Again this spring..." Jaworzno, Ex Libris Gallery
  
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2016 "Seeing the landscape", Konfederacka 4, Krakow

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Wystawy i działanie kolektywne

• 2023 Ornithological Exhibition the Center for Contemporary Art “Wiewiórka” and the Faculty of Art of the University of Warsaw, co-financed by the Pedagogical University of Cracow.
• Performative open-air exhibition entitled. "The Books of Madohora" in defence of the forests, trees and streams of Madohora Mountain.
• Sail for Michal Zygmunt, for a journey across Poland's rivers.
• 2023 Protest against the Siarzewo Dam- 5-;ecie Sisters of the Rivers. Happening under the Ministry for the Environment and Climate
  
• 2022 Group exhibition before the auction : "Sisters of the Rivers for the Oder". Rosa Wroniszewska Auction House.
  
• 2022 Participation in a dance performance (Gusła Collective) at the exhibition "Willa Fatale"- CCA Squirrel, as part of the Krakers festival.
  
• 2022 Art Box Expo exhibition, Zurich
  
• 2021 September, World Rivers Day on the Oder River. Happening with the Sisters of Rivers collective, including solo live act analogue light animations for a concert by Michal Zygmunt- in the monastery in Lubiąż.
  
• 2021 September/October Two collective exhibitions and a live act within the framework of the project connected with the celebration of Stanisław Lem's year - under the motto: "Futurophobic reunion" in cooperation with the CCA Wiewiórka in Krakow.
  

• Exhibition in the Yeast Workshop and in the CCA Wiewiórka in Krakow.
• 2021 May. Artistic and activist activities in the village of Myscowa with the Sisters of the River collective. Drawing a map of the village and the planned Kąty-Myscowa reservoir.
• 2021 " Tsunami" international sumi-e painting exhibition - online.
• 2021 Online exhibition Propaganda Gallery Second Climate Plateau of contemporary art.
• 2021 Creative activities during isolation, in pandemonium with the Sisters of the River video collective: "Peperuna".
• 2021 'Public consultation with the inhabitants of the village of Myscowa. Field recordings.
  
• 2021 "Protest of cows in Myscowa", work on visuals da Cecylia Malik together with the Sisters of the Rivers collective , as well as field recordings and interviews with the inhabitants of the village of Kąty Myscowa.
  
• 2021 June : "You won't stop the river". - Exhibition of female artists in the Sisters of the Rivers collective and photographic documentation of Cecylia Malik's happenings with the participation of the collective. Exhibition at the CCA Wiewiórka in Krakow.
  
• 2020 National Museum in Tokyo- group exhibition and jury mention.
  
• 2019 Exhibition for the 5th anniversary of the Sumi-e school, Kraków Mangha Museum.
  

2018 Warsaw Studio Art and Passion.