Pawel Wojtasik: Like A Shipwreck We Die Going Into Ourselves

Opening reception Thursday September 18th from 6 to 8 pm

We know the receipt, the capacity of the Ventricle, the stomach of man, how much it can hold; and we know the receipt of all the receptacles of blood, how much blood the body can have; so do we of all the other conduits and cisterns of the body; but this infinite Hive of honey, this insatiable whirlpool of the covetous mind, no anatomy, no dissection, hath discovered to us. - John Donne

Martos Gallery is pleased to present Like a Shipwreck We Die Going Into Ourselves, an exhibition of new work by Pawel Wojtasik. This will be his first solo exhibition at the gallery. For the exhibition, which takes its title from the poem Nothing but Death by Pablo Neruda, Wojtasik will address the subject matter of autopsies. The word autopsy comes from the Greek autopsia, meaning "an eye-witnessing." Wojtasik takes this idea of witnessing and uses it to transform our thoughts and visions of the body while it undergoes dissection.

The show consists of a video, along with still images on digital displays that slowly change over time, creating meditative moments as the viewer moves through the gallery space. The centerpiece of the exhibition is Autopsy, September 25th - a video of footage from an actual autopsy. The work transcends the usual assumptions that surround autopsies by revealing an uncommon beauty in visceral imagery. The components of the exhibition come together to open up an investigation into the complex process of which life, death and the nature of human identity are a part. The works reference the tradition, beginning in the Renaissance, of the investigation into the body's interior, most notably in the works of Vesalius, DaVinci and Rembrandt, and later in contemporary works of Brakhage, Bacon and Serrano.

For Wojtasik, this exhibition is not merely about the body in death. Rather it is a probing into the larger process of life and death and what may lie beyond, as we go into ourselves.

Pawel Wojtasik is a video artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His works have been shown at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; and others. In the spring of 2009 Wojtasik will present a panoramic video shot in New Orleans as part of the exhibition These Days: Elegies for Modern Times at MASS MoCA, in North Adams, MA. In the Fall of 2009 Wojtasik will have a solo exhibition at Galerie Maisonneuve in Paris.

Pawel Wojtasik
Like A Shipwreck We Die Going Into Ourselves