The Four Seasons, 2024
video, 2′, loop
3D animation, 3840 × 2160 px, 25 fps, stereo sound
The work revolves around my subjective image of the four seasons arranged to form a circle. The imagery of top and bottom circle sections standing for summer and winter, respectively, has been accompanying me since my childhood days – albeit only recently have I discovered that the notion is far from universal. While a silhouette has been inscribed within the circle in semblance of Renaissance representations of the Vitruvian Man, it is anything but realistic. This is a well-nigh abstract avatar, constantly in motion, vibrating and undergoing morphic changes, expressing emotions and cumulated memories associated with the experience of individual seasons. The avatar’s movements appear to be forming a peculiar choreography, drawing viewers’ attention to selected sections of the circle. The clockwise motion of the silhouette’s head is due to animation, and changes to shape and form. Personal emotions associated with individual seasons are further affected by cultural conditioning: the education system, days of leave and holidays.
The contemplation of occultist renderings of a human inscribed within a universe-symbolising circle have made me wonder whether intellectual and scientific attempts aspiring to transcend the human point of reference are not, in all actuality, subjected to limitations arising from our perception, capacities and hypocrisy.
Piotr Kopik – multimedia artist working in installation, video, animation, machinima, VR, computer graphic and performance, as well as collage and drawing. Graduate of the Faculty of Painting Department at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Co-founder of the szu szu group. He has exhibited (i.a.) at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in War-saw, BWA Wrocław, BWA Zielona Góra, Museum of Art in Łódź, Arsenal Gallery in Poznań, Wyspa Art Institute in Gdańsk, Kunsthaus Dresden, Bat-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism in Bat-Yam, in Graz, lokal_30 gallery in Warsaw, Różnia gallery in Warsaw, Harbor Gallery in Boston. His films have been shown (i.a.) at FILE in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Planete+ Doc Film Festival, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, at the Muranów Cinema in Warsaw and the TVP Kultura television station. Lecturer at the Faculty of Media Art at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He runs 3D & Virtual Occurrences Studio I.
photo: Adam Gut
