25 years of your work is actually 25 years with amber.
Indeed, I have dedicated most of my artistic life to amber - and it has repaid me beautifully for that! Even when I tried to do something without amber, it would eventually make an appearance. And so, in 2001, I created the jewellery collection „The Book of Minerals”, in which I used various coloured jewellery stones and a variety of goldsmithing techniques. Amber featured in the fashion show at the Amberif Gala that same year - to begin and end the whole „Book”. You really can't get away from amber. And living on the Coast, it is hard not to reach for it and fall in love with it.
I wonder if you would have achieved so much if you had used a stone other than amber....
Interesting... Actually, I can't even imagine such a situation - I think we are destined for each other with amber. At school we didn't have classes in amber processing, but it „came” to me in the form of a script which I got from my lecturer, Professor Noiman - by the way, I still have it. Then, quite soon, Janusz Wosik appeared on my artistic and life path, who showed me a completely different approach to amber and taught me to respect it. When I finally dared to reach for amber, I knew that I wanted to do completely different works than those which dominated the market at the time. Out of respect for the stone, I tried to keep its natural form as much as possible and to compose other elements to match it. To this day, I still believe that there is no point in processing nature. The artist's task is to see the inspiring beauty of amber and be inventive in order to create a setting for it.
You were inspired by amber not only to create jewellery, but also paintings.
I noticed that I needed various forms to express myself: jewellery, installations, fashion shows, paintings... The first painting was created in 1997, then the Baltic inspired me to create whole thematic series using objects discarded by the sea on the beach. This is also where my love of recycling and my desire to give seemingly useless objects a new life manifested itself. This stage was really wildly inspiring for me. Now I'm thinking about film shorts that would introduce interested parties to selected amber themes....
Your work is timeless - it could just as easily have been created five, 15 and 25 years ago.
Perhaps this is because in all my work I am guided not by temporal trends but, above all, by my idea of a beautiful object and try my best to make it a reality. I look literally everywhere for inspiration, and they range from the archaic to the futuristic. I always leave a part of myself in the works, what I feel at the moment and how I perceive the world. My philosophy is to strive for a synthesis of the object, without over-elaborating the form, because I want to capture the ideal pattern - the archetype. To achieve this goal, I combine amber with various materials: gold, silver, silk, wool, felt, linen, leather, steel, minerals, fossils, meteorites and sandalwood. Each of these gives a completely different final effect when combined with amber: gold, silk - nobility ; felt - warmth, lightness, colour palette; silver, steel, meteorites - a cold futuristic, even cosmic dimension. These interesting combinations also give multidimensionality and give originality to the matter. This is actually no longer jewellery sensu stricto, but rather small sculptural forms - objects that also function as jewellery.
Which works do you value the most?
There are quite a few of them, as I am emotionally attached to each work... But most of all, probably, it is the necklace „Shaman” from 1999, for which I received a distinction in the artwork category in the International Competition of Amber Art of the Baltic Countries in Ribnitz-Damgarten, as well as the necklace „Madonna's Hair”, for which I received the 3rd prize in the same competition and in the same year. I am also very appreciative of the triptych „ End of the News” - it too was awarded: 1st prize in the 2009 International Amber Biennale „Alatir” in Kaliningrad... There are a lot of works that are particularly close to my heart... It's such an amber vertigo... I also like to take part in competitions, because it means subjecting myself to some kind of verification - and a prize is proof that I am going in the right direction as an artist.
Anniversaries are an opportunity not only to take stock, but also to make plans for the future - what are yours?
I will certainly continue with my current line of work. My aim is to practice unconventional art and related themes. I would also like to inspire others to look at amber and at art in a slightly different way... But there will be time for that yet.
Recommended:
A little felt - a conversation with Paulina Binek
Amber in the hands of Paulina Binek
Paulina Binek - gallery