Paulina Olowska brings Slavic folklore and androgynous nymphs to London

‘When I was making this show, I thought I would underline that it is a change for my work, from working with Polish 1960s and 1970s ideas of socialism to moving into the countryside,’ says Paulina Olowska, whose show ‘Squelchy Garden Mules and Mamunas’ is now open at London’s Pace Gallery (until 6 January 2024). ‘It comes along with the foundation that I run, the mycology that crept into my work, and the hauntology which comes from this Mark Fisher idea that you put everything into this metal pot, and it resonates, giving you the haunting voices and so on.’

Olowska intertwines this eclectic blend of references into an exhibition that celebrates a mix of mediums, from painting to photography, puppetry, sound installation and film. The effect is instantly immersive – step in off the street and you’re enveloped into Olowska’s world of Slavic mythological deities and demons. The Mamuna of the title (Polish for ‘strangewife’) is a female swamp character rife with negative associations. In the mystical, magical guises she takes here, Olowska reclaims her.

In large-scale paintings created from photographs, she reclines in the forest, brought to life in realistic compositions. ‘This show for me was about this way of creating objects around nature, because paintings are also about nature. And for me, the biggest test [is that ] I was not a landscape painter. So, within the show, I set myself a goal, painting the first very gestural paintings for one year, and then I was getting into the detailed works of it.’

Olowska, who also creates tapestries, sees the landscape as something to be knitted. The figures in it reappear throughout the exhibition, peering out from cuckoo clocks while interacting in their natural habitats in video installations. Downstairs, they are transformed into life-size puppets, referencing both Ukrainian Motanka, the knotted guardian dolls, and the Polish spring ritual Topienie Marzanny, which sees straw Marzanna dolls symbolising death, winter, and disease being drowned in a river.  

‘With this show, I wanted to underline, for example, the importance of folk art,’ Olowska adds. ‘And actually, it went parallel to the socialist way of thinking. I think I was praising this idea that all forms of art have beauty and importance.’

Paulina Olowska: ‘Squelchy Garden Mules and Mamunas’ until 6 January 2024 at Pace Gallery, London

pacegallery.com