Kaczmarek is a printmaker at David Krut Workshop and a committed ecological artist. The inspiration for Shifting Positions came about after a residency in Leipzig, Germany. While there she showed the exhibition Pflanzenkunde in which she superimposed images of plants onto more mechanical man-made structures. Shifting Positions continues in a similiar vein only this time turning attention to the relations between the natural and the urban worlds in Johannesburg.
Speaking on this shift Kaczmarek says, "The way the Leipzig community live with plants in their windows, clearly visible and backlit by their apartments became a prominent feature in the Pflanzenkunde series. Returning to Johannesburg and the eclectic nature of how things grow in the subtropical climate, coupled with the lack of being able to see into people’s homes, my focus has shifted to looking more to how plants are cast and where they land."
Kaczmarek's work looks at the interplay between nature and our urban spaces and the unusual and often surprising ways plants embed themselves in these spaces. In these spaces plants are often contained and carefully curated and with her prints Kaczmarek seeks to displace them and in doing so disrupt our ideas around cultivation and plants.
A highly-talented printmaker and artist Kaczmarek's Shifting Positions is well worth going to see.
Exhibition opens Sat, 8 Oct at 11:00. Entrance is free.
