ŠTĚPÁNKA ADÁMKOVÁ

CORPOREAL. Bonded by the Particles

Painting Studio 2

You have been working with the concept of synthetic belonging for a long time. What does it mean to you and what role does it play in the final project?
The concept of synthetic belonging represents a change of perspective, the search for a way to cope with the unfortunate environmental situation, a way to reclaim a sense of hope, closeness and shared corporeality. Synthetic belonging shows that we – the (in-)human, (non-)living, past and future – are all in this together. 
I have been working with environmental themes in my artistic practice since I was seventeen, when everything I painted dealt with the theme of environmental anxiety. I was frustrated for so long that I began to regard my anxiety as a form of punishment. I started finding a certain joy in the pain of blaming myself that gave me a performative resolution to the problem. But it didn’t change anything. So, I began a new phase, one which I jokingly call ‘environmental resignation’ which works with a bit of irony, aesthetics and fun, but also hope. It develops a method for coming to terms with the fact that everything around us is degrading into microparticles we no longer have control over.

Microplastics are a material that has become part of all of us. But how do you address the fact that different groups or species do not bear the impacts of plastic pollution to the same degree?
I give micro- and nanoplastics a sense of agency by separating them from human domination and giving them autonomous power as a terrestrial force. Microplastics are a sort of poetic justice towards the human species – by fragmenting into microparticles, the past lives we have raised and used for making packaging and disposable materials return to our bodies. Unfortunately, this also impacts species and groups that bear no responsibility for this state. That is why it is important to perceive this situation precisely through poetic justice, making it necessary to care for the affected innocents all the more.

You use the term pampering also in relation to something that harms us. Can we ever care for a material that is ultimately toxic?
This paradox of synthetic belonging interests me! A thing that was initially “our” creation and servant has become our master, an independent entity inhabiting the sea, the land, and our bodies. We have lost control over it, so we need to show solidarity with other (non-)human entities and manage this global deluge together. Plastics are a beautiful, unparalleled material. Isn’t it beautiful and poetic that it is also the executor of justice? And don’t we actually pamper our plastics even now (without any sense of synthetic belonging), despite the fact that they harm us? We love plastic even though we know it is toxic. I enjoy pointing out this paradox and exaggerating it.

photo: Polina Davydenko