Cast bronze, 10 x 8 x 7 cm
Cast in bronze, the sculpture's form is inspired by coke sinter - a waste product created in a forge fire. In its structure are visible sunken, melted coins left over from the artist's personal travels.
The juxtaposition of this material with coins gives this work a socio-critical dimension. The artist points out that money - like heartburn - is in fact the waste of labor, not its purpose. What passes for value in the world of finance is created solely through human labor, but separated from it it becomes dead, meaningless.
In the artist's words, "We live in a unique moment in which there is a growing need to reflect on the morality of capital turnover. This is a contemporary clash between the people of labor and the people of capital - a conflict between those who produce value and those who speculate with it. Thus, the sculpture is not only a memory of personal experience, where I was professionally involved in blacksmithing, but also a metaphor for contemporary global social and systemic tensions (US - China)."
Luke Surowiec is an interdisciplinary artist: sculptor, performer, stage designer, video maker and social action author. He graduated from the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, and also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and the Universität der Künste in Berlin. In his objects and artistic interventions, Surowiec penetrates and explores current social relations, and also addresses historical and political issues. The artist rejects classical categories or classifications in favor of intermedia works that explore the human condition in contemporary socioeconomic conditions. In his works, he tries to draw attention to marginalized social groups and their problems, including historical pasts seemingly buried in the past. His work also explores issues of memory. His work takes the form of a method to explore public reality, with a focus on marginalized individuals. In his artistic activity, he addresses current social issues, also going beyond the walls of official art institutions. He is a recipient of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and a winner of the prestigious Spojrzenia (2017) competition for young artists. He has participated in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. Among them, the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012), Dziady, Bunkier Sztuki (2013), What can be seen - Polish art today, MSN, Warsaw (2014), Wejście do portu, Emigration Museum, Gdynia (2016), Late Polishness, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2017).
