Phoenix. Enjoy your life. After life

The story of my sculpture is the story of giving life. And the right ones take someone’s life. For “higher” purposes. But are they really higher?

I love the garden of the Academy of Fine Arts. I was delighted with it from the first meeting. Huge, magnificent trees grew in it. They had a plaque with an eagle that they were an asset and that they were protected by law. A few years ago, I was also delighted to learn that the Academy had received support and funding and that construction was beginning, eagerly awaited by generations of staff and students, of a modern Academy building – with glass studios and its own glassworks! The dream of the founders of the Glass Department decades ago has begun to materialize.

Unfortunately, magnificent trees were cut down. Proud oaks, ash trees, poplars, spruces, hornbeams, plane trees were quartered. The placard with the Polish emblem was of no use. I found a burnt, charred trunk. Beautiful… With difficulty, I packed it on a cargo cart and hid it under the table in the doctor’s room. I wanted to “someday” honor the life of this tree, this park.

I imprinted a glass lava in the structure of a charred trunk in our glass factory, which was built on the site of a felled park. I created a sculpture. Life after life. Art from the Ruins. Yes, it’s a beautiful form. It inspires awe. But is this what I dreamed of? Probably not, but it is my personal tribute to trees.

Aleksandra Kujawska

dimension of the whole with base: ca. 84 x 90 x 90 cm

base: ca. 60 x 90 x 90 cm