Tomasz Daniec — Solaris
Solaris. Drawing. 2018-2020 Solaris is a series of drawings, one could even say that it is illustrative, although the horizontal arrangement of the boards and the meticulousness of the representations would make it difficult to use them in print. Drawings made with a pen in a convention balancing between classic comics and realistic, 18th-century representations, sometimes interrupted by digitally generated elements, correspond to the subsequent chapters of Lem's novel. Although Lem's narrative is generally linear, he often uses a classic technique in which the hero delves into the on-board library, which escapes the order of the story and allows for the introduction of a story within the story. And at the same time, it gives you the opportunity to go beyond chronology, but without disturbing it in any way. Kelvin always puts the book aside at the end of a chapter and returns to the rhythm of events.
My series is dominated by representations of fragments of the closed space of the base orbiting above the surface of the intelligent ocean. The drawing process of transposing creations generated by the planet, colliding or interpenetrating with structures (both intellectual and technological concepts) built by humans, allowed me to transfer some representations into the symbolic sphere, based on fractal forms. It is symptomatic that in my drawings the human hero appears only in the first and last frame. In addition, he is locked in a suit and subjected to distortions resulting first from entering the (un)reality of Solaris, and finally from coming to terms with the awareness of the impossibility of ordering this world in a structure comprehensible to humans.
The premiere show of the Solaris series took place in 2021 as part of the "Antigravity" exhibition, BWA Gallery Tarnów, March 4, 2021 - April 11, 2021; curatorial texts: Dominika Borek, Przemysław Pokrywka, Exhibition catalog, published by: Wydawnictwo PWSZ in Tarnów, ISBN 978-83-953706-8-7
