Disassembly, 2013

Bownik’s works can be classified as belonging to the conceptual movement, however, in terms of esthetics they are reminiscent of commercial and advertising photography in which a carefully polished object is presented in very lively, attractive colors. Plants in Bownik’s photograph look perfect but also reveal their dark history - the history of the artist’s quasi-scientific actions. Like a plastic surgeon or a pathologist, Bownik dismembers plants with precision, changes their layout, rearranges the parts, and sews them back together into a whole. Then, he photographs the creation with a large format camera which represents the newly formed plant with great exactness. The viewer can, therefore, observe the vicissitudes of the plant and becomes a witness of the artist’s apparent attempt at improving upon nature. Bownik draws on the tradition of photographing flowers, formed by such artists as Anna Atkins, Karl Blossfeldt, Edward Weston, Irving Penn, and Robert Maplethorpe, as well as on the contemporary mania of modifying and improving upon what is natural, and on the pseudo-scientific actions characteristic of conceptual art. In his work, Bownik is conscious of and respects the history and tradition of artistic photography. He has graduated from the University of the Arts Poznan where he studied Photography and Multimedia. He experiments with various photographic techniques. In 2008, he became a scholar of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. He lives and works in Warsaw.

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