Magdalena Abakanowicz, MANUS, 1994. 

Bronze with beeswax. 15′ h.

Magdalena Abakanowicz is a sculptor whose work  plays with the relationship between society and nature. Abakanowicz grew up in Poland during the war, under Soviet domination. She studied art in a conservative school where her creativity was hindered; the Soviet rule placed strict guidelines on what was “good art.” These guidelines were called social realism, and through it the state was able to control everything that artists sought to create.

Her use of repetition in her work reflects the influence of living in a communist regime, where the individual and the creative were repressed. By making gigantic and unconventional sculptures, she is rebelling against the structured schooling she received during a very controlled and oppressive time period in Poland and Eastern Europe.

Manus is one of the many outdoor sculptures displayed at Western Washington University, located on south campus on a grassy hill surrounded by groves of many trees, placed there to link the human activity of campus with the natural beauty of the area. Manus is made of bronze with a bumpy, rough texture made from beeswax to simulate the natural form of tree bark. It stretches toward the sky and when it reaches it’s apex, the top spreads out like a hand. It is part of a series called “Hand-like Trees” that is about a respect and close observation of the natural world and our place in it, like all of Abakanowicz’s work.

Approaching Manus, there is a looming, powerful feeling; similar to the feeling that one would feel approaching the towering trees in this area. A feeling of permanence and solitude, harmony and peacefulness; a place to offer some sort of meditation.

Magdalena Abakanowicz specifically wanted to create this kind of feeling, not only in Manus but a great deal of her work.The concept of the Manus being a “hand-like tree” is particularly interesting, because it incorporates the natural world with our human one, it adds a humanity to the structure—it is not fully a tree, nor is it fully human. This sculpture brings both the natural and human world together in an eye catching but still subtle way.

Magdalena Abakanowicz is also known for the following pieces:

  • Abakans, 1967: gigantic three-dimensional fiber works; dyed, woven, and hung from the ceiling.
  • Alterations, 74-75, twelve hollowed-out headless human figures sitting in a row.
  • Heads,73-75, a series of enormous solid forms, reminiscent of human heads without faces.
  • Backs, 76-80, series of eighty slightly differing sculptures of the human trunk.
  • The Crowd I, 86-97, a series of fifty standing figures.
  • War Games, 90s, a structures made up of huge trunks of old trees with their branches and bark removed, partly bandaged with rags and steel hoops, placed on lattice metal stands.

Agora, 2004-06, 106 headless cast iron figures, all about nine feet tall with wrinkled tree-like skin.

Pictures of these and more about the artist can be found at her website http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/index.php.html

CREDITS:

Video and Photography Capture: Jerome St.Martin

Video and Audio Editing: Christopher Cyr

Research: Phia Swart

Scripting and Concept Development: Gabrielle Cagley

Polish Speaking: Dora Jarkowski

Music: Christopher Cyr