Also, what the facts do not reveal is that the students were given large workspaces, as much material as they needed and studio time. Even if the students wanted to work on a large scale, they were fully funded, and they had creative freedom. They received living expenses. The tutors had studio spaces and were available almost all of the time. Regel fondly remembers her sculptor tutor, Irene Zabrocka, who introduced her to clay. The tutors were bohemian and interesting and possibly had clear memories and knowledge of Communism and Soviet Socialist Realism. Could it be that their means and methods, and their attitude to the conventions of art, came as a reaction to this?
A number of Polish artists inspired Regel growing up, such as the textile-based sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz, who has a major exhibition at the Tate Modern until May 2023 and the sculptor Alina Szapocznikow (1926–1973) whose work moves Regel deeply. Szapocznikow’s work, too, hovers between abstraction and f iguration, the f igure as a platform for the absurd: exaggeration, distortion, monstrousness, the uncanny, i l lness, body parts, etc. The kind of work that is made when naturalism and verisimilitude are no longer adequate, and for which there is long sociopolitical history. NATURAL CONNECTION Regel has eyes that twinkle and scan the horizon, perhaps a tic that goes back to staring out to sea waiting for her father who captained a trawler, rescuing and moving ships that operated out of Gdynia. The family lived not far from the port and the sea in a tall apartment block inside a primal wood. Picture this: an apartment block in the middle of a forest, children roaming freely, riding horses (forests cover an estimated 35% of Poland 's territory, and are mostly owned by the state. Notably, they are increasing at a rate so fast that by 2035, Poland ’s forestcoverage percentage will be more than 40%).
As a child, Regel, almost feral, spent her time with tree bark against her skin, pine needles prick ling her arms, deciduous leaves cool against her face, and in their apartment a variety of animals. She navigated the world through its textures, colours and weight, sampling nature by way of her hands, arms and legs. For Regel, landscape has an emotional and a phenomenological quality. The feel of these things on her body.
She goes back to Poland regularly to renew her connection to its landscapes and its forests. She is also thinking of bringing back some of her old work, which she now sees anew, but with more subtle colours.
Technique and technicalities are of no interest to Regel. She is a sculptor who has been seduced by clay and sometimes the vessel shape. The ideas matter more and come f irst. Her pieces are often head-size and torsosize. She builds by hand using a variety of clays (big chunks of them) of different colours (including the white of porcelain) all f ireable to stoneware temperatures, often together in one piece, incorporating found materials,
LE F T: Razem (Together), 2023 RIGHT: Gneiss, 2023
14 May/June 2023
