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The starting point for Barbara Trzybulska’s latest project was the novel Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila. Among its many fantastical beings—such as water spirits, warwas, and goblins—the elusive creatures known as raskels make their appearance. In Karila’s literary world, they ride quietly in the back seats of cars and can be loyal, terrifying, or touchingly gentle. Though references to their origins in Sámi folklore are scarce—perhaps even nonexistent outside the novel itself—they became a powerful source of artistic inspiration for Trzybulska.
Her interpretation of raskels takes the form of seated figures that merge birdlike and fishlike features. In these beings, the artist blends echoes of folk mythology with literary invention, shaping a reality where the boundaries between fact and fiction become fluid.
Equally significant to the exhibition are the tricks —small sculptures made of porcelain and clay, created using a salvaged mold of a horse from the now-defunct Krzysztof Porcelain Factory in Wałbrzych. Once used to produce figurines for the Swedish retail chain IKEA, the mold finds new life in Trzybulska’s hands. The porcelain factories of Lower Silesia—Książ, Krzysztof, Wałbrzych, and Karolina—have played a pivotal role in her artistic journey. It was within their walls, during the “Porcelain Differently” plein-air workshops and individual visits, that the artist learned the material, experimented, and shaped her own visual language.
Although each trick originates from the same rescued mold, every piece is treated individually, revealing a wide range of techniques, formal solutions, and Trzybulska’s signature approach to ceramic expression. The tricks also serve as a subtle tribute to the places that once shaped the ceramic identity of Lower Silesia—many of which have since vanished from the map, surviving only in memory and in creative gestures such as this one.
The opening and a meeting with the artist will take place on Friday 16 May 2025 at 7pm.
The exhibition will be open from 16-31.0.2025.
