object, 2023, 10x10 in, carpet grippers, wooden panels
“Aleksandra Wałaszek’s Dual Purpose Object is a sculptural cube composed out of repurposed carpet grippers. Commonly used to fix carpets in place and provide stability, this use of found objects makes the work accrue a sense of violence and precarity. The viewer is confronted with a simple question: what exactly is the second purpose in question? Through guiding us to this question, Wałaszek exhibits a covert ability of art. Namely, the ability to expose layers of meaning where none were expected. The exhibited work exposes reality for not being singular but rather richly laminated and folded onto itself. The hierarchies of value we learn to parse through our daily realities often obscure latent interpretations and potentials. Wałaszek’s sculpture destabilizes such hierarchies. Just as stained glass comes into glory under light, so do layers of meaning hiding in plain sight.”
Michał Dzitko