CEZARY RUCKI

/ Elegy to the Black Matter

London, 2024

"You've been here for years. Sometimes smoldering in the corner of my eye, other times flooding my whole world with darkness. Once you were my enemy. Now I know that you’re a part of me. Whether I want it or not."

"Elegy to the Black Matter" is an attempt at poetic reflection on various aspects of mental health issues, seen through the eyes of a person dealing with them for almost 20 years. The work consists of three parts. Each of them describes a different facet of the same issue. There is no set order.

Ardousness tells about the constant circle of falling and rising.
Besetment about the feeling of being surrounded by an invisible, painful force.
Absorption is about the inseparability and irreversibility of the processes that have taken place.

This work is an attempt to articulate things that are impossible to describe in words. Completely honest, thorough self-confrontation, without judgment or prejudice. Cold and full of emotions at the same time.

Each piece uses the medium of photography, subjecting it to painterly, post-production, performative, and spatial processing - to find the best way to represent the complexity and ambiguity of the Black Matter.

Cezary Rucki

Warsaw/London