Title: Dwa słońca (Two Suns)

Date: 2024

Description: This is a portrait of Hanna Orzechowska. She is one of the heroines of my doctoral thesis on the reconstruction of my female lineage. The painting depicts the artist lying on her side. In her abdomen is a black sun – a symbol of the sacral chakra and the creative power of the womb. It is the source of fertility, and its fruit can be a child, a painting, a poem, or a delicious loaf of bread. The second sun is shown in the sky. Its simple image refers to Hanna Orzechowska’s watercolour depictions of the sun from 1948, which I saw at the exhibition Looking at the Sun. Hanna Orzechowska presented at the Galeria Studio in 2024. In this image, the hands are also important: the left one gives birth to new stars, and the right one moves too quickly to be seen clearly. The hands materialise the ideas seeded in the womb.

Technique, dimension: oil on canvas, 66 × 78 cm

First showing: 2024, Zachęta Project Room

Ownership: Monika Waraxa