Michalina Doszczak

My mind is plagued by my morbid curiosities and thoughts of decay. I can't help but to want to dissect, dismember and skin the disgusting, gory and despair-filled realities. I follow the terrible compulsion to repeat and dig deeper into the macabre and grim nature of our own humanity and psychological experience. Through surgery-like research and rumination about the morbid topics I want to create room for discomfort and the experience of a cacophony of depersonalization and derealization until all that is left is the feeling of doom.

My work is focused on the skin crawling sensory experiences that are found in the horrors of living. The experience of anxiety, depression, medical trauma and death form the basis for my artworks that are expressed through lens-based media as well as writing (both creative and academic) and multimedia installations. The work makes use of sterile environments wherein an uncomfortable focus is set on a singular subject, representing all that one would like to push away. I use obsession as a method in my creation process, functioning as a magnifying glass to the subjects I am exploring. The works of art serve as a kind of visual diary, capturing what cannot be seen with the naked eye but express that which reverberates through our souls. One is meant to feel it on their skin, in their mouth and throat, in the depths of their bones, down to the darkest shadow of their soul. Repetition is a means to intensify the emotion behind the work as well as shed a light on the cyclical nature in which the emotion manifests and festers within you, shedding light on a shared mortality and the despair and dread that it can invoke.