Dorota Borowa
DATES
5 February to 1 March 2025
TIMES
SHARE
Dorota Borowa
5 February to 1 March 2025
Studio open to the public on Tuesday and Thursday
During my time at the Uillinn Residency, I aim to prepare for two upcoming solo exhibitions by creating large-scale, site-responsive drawing installations that engage directly with the studio space. I want to explore the challenges and performative aspects of creating an immersive, “live” project within a set timeframe that blurs the boundaries between art, architecture, and nature.
My work will feature a series of “Water Drawings” on paper, prepared in collaboration with water beforehand, and hung directly on the studio walls. I will extend them into the space with charcoal drawings on the walls, floor, and ceiling. The removal of the installation will explore the tension between holding on and letting go, questioning whether the act of drawing could be a form of preparing to erase it.
I seek to embrace the uncertainty of not knowing how the project will evolve, learning from the process. Additionally, I want to explore how this work can be documented and whether the documentation can become an autonomous artwork in itself.
Partnership with nature is a key element of my practice. Rather than depicting nature, I seek to collaborate with it. Instead of exerting total control, I assist water in painting an image. I mix water with oil paint, watercolor, or ink, allowing the materials to react organically on paper or board. The process itself is central to my inquiry, teaching me humility, openness, attentiveness, patience, determination, and forgiveness. The unpredictability and limited control of my process make my works a space between accident and design, between acceptance and destruction.
Moving toward site-responsive installations represents another step in relinquishing control, embracing the unknown outcome of a “live” creation. I would like to invite the community to join me in creating this installation, whether through drawing, leaving marks, or washing them away.
Dorota Borowa is a Polish artist based in Kerry. She works across a range of media, including drawing, printmaking, video, site-specific works and a performance, an area of growing interest. Rather than depicting nature, she seeks to collaborate with it. In this way she explores her own relationship with the natural world. She received her MFA from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Borowa exhibits both nationally and internationally and has been awarded a number of AiR programs (Arctic Circle Residency, PS2, Mothership Project Satellite Residency). Dorota has been supported by the Arts Council, Kerry and South Dublin County Councils.
Visitors are encouraged to leave their own marks—whether by drawing alongside me, leaving footprints on the charcoal drawings I have created on the floor (could the destruction of the drawings become part of the installation?), or washing the marks away together as the project progresses.
Through this project, I aim to foster a shared experience that highlights our interconnectedness, moving beyond the notion of individuals separate from nature. For me, art is a platform for deep personal dialogue, and I hope this installation will provide a space for such exchange.
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WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.