LACE SCULPTURES

Hand-crocheted traditional Polish lace, kinetic mechanical elements, audio loop (heartbeat), medical vial containing the artist's blood.

This piece explores how memory, trauma, and lineage are physically held within the body. In this installation, the domestic and the clinical collide, untangling the precarious space between communal heritage and individual survival. It manifests as a series of surrealist, non-functional everyday objects made of traditional Polish lace—items meant for utility that are rendered beautifully, hauntingly useless (surrealistyczne, niemożliwe do użycia).

Framed by a hand-crocheted set of cutlery, a lace heart vessels a kinetic, beating core. The lace is a direct invocation of my Polish heritage—a craft deeply rooted in women’s gatherings, collective memory, and shared histories. Historically, the creation of Polish lace required intense domestic labor, an art form where trauma, gossip, survival, and love were quietly woven into the fabric of daily life by matriarchal hands.

Yet, held within this traditional matriarchal armor is an intimate, mechanical pulse sounding a continuous heartbeat, coupled with a vial of my own blood. By integrating my medical history and ongoing treatment directly into the fiber of the work, the installation transforms from a symbol of heritage into a literal site of healing and bodily processing. The fragility of the thread meets the stark reality of needles, blood, and clinical intervention.

The non-functional nature of the lace objects asks a vital question about the burden of survival. How do we digest trauma when the tools we are given cannot hold the weight of our reality? Ultimately, this sculpture challenges the viewer to look at the scars of the present through the lens of the past, asking: How does the collective fabric of our past nourish and sustain the vulnerabilities of our present body?

The Shared Table (What Nourishes the Blood) Sculptural installation Dimensions: 30 x 23 x 23 cm 

Materials: Hand-crafted lace, polymer, cables, copper, and artist's blood sample