Your name
Michal Semczyszyn
Place of birth
Wroclaw, Poland
Place where you live now
London, UK
3 words to describe you
Intuitive, Methodical, Authentic
Why do you take pictures?
Taking pictures (most often macro shots of small metal objects) gives me a substance to work with. I can use these shots to assemble structures that depict how I feel. It’s like solving a puzzle each time I create a new image! I love this process, and also the fact that the end result, as in all visual arts, has an instantaneous effect on the viewer.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I am inspired by my own life, both real experiences and dreams, and the lives of other people. I like to walk around the city, observe people and guess who they are, where they are going, and what they are thinking. Then I come back home and lose myself in 20th century literary fiction, especially works by Samuel Beckett, Fernando Pessoa, Thomas Bernhard, Franz Kafka, and experimental writing techniques of OuLiPo writers.
Who are your influences?
Apart from aforementioned writers, I am influenced by painting (Zdzislaw Beksinski, Alessandro Papetti, Edward Hopper, abstract expressionists), sculpture (Aron Demetz, Alberto Giacometti), film (Andrei Tarkovsky, David Lynch), and photography (Duane Michals, Francesca Woodman, Michael Wolf).
What determines the subject matter you choose?
A few years ago I created a list of key themes that are of the most importance to me and which I would like to explore through art, thinking, and conversations. At the top of the list you can read: ‘relentless (and futile) search for meaning’, ‘alienation of a modern man’, and ‘limits of freedom’. I still refer to this list and probably always will. I’m like those authors who write one book over and over again, each time trying to create something slightly more real, simple, and complete.
What impact would you like your art to have?
On the one hand, I would like to connect emotionally with people who perceive the world in a similar way - people who have experienced similar joys and sorrows, people who seem familiar with the constructs of my imagination, who have similar wounds and dream the same dreams as I do. On the other hand, I would like people who perceive the world very differently to make an effort to understand an alternative point of view. I would like them to pause for a moment and reflect on themselves to better understand the intricacies, the absurd, and the dark nature of existence.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
An untitled photograph made by Francesca Woodman (‘Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976’) - the one with a vanishing mark on a wooden floor made by her wet body and herself sitting in a chair in the upper right corner.
Is there anything you want to add?
‘You're on Earth. There's no cure for that.’ - Samuel Beckett
