Rafal Piesliak

Rafal Piesliak is best known for conceptual installations, which he usually constructs from various light sources. His interests as an artist encompass topics of human well-being, spiritual state, various psychological situations and environmental impact on the psyche of a subject.

At the recent exhibition Rafal Piesliak turns at various barricades, which limit human existence. According to the artist, the mundane life of a contemporary person is full of self-made or externally imposed boundaries that force subject into social and moral frames and negatively affect our behaviour or choices. At this exhibition the barricade represents both an external, physical obstacle, which also serves as a symbol of political power and instrument of war, and as a psychological, social limitation that exists in every person’s head. Internal barricades are created in order to protect one-self from outer factors (e.g. information, opinions, people) likewise they are products of social control instruments and regulations that limit people’s freedom to violate social norms, to be spontaneous, to stand out or to oppose.

Before the opening Rafal Piesliak will construct the installation at the gallery from casual, inexpensive, accidental materials, because this is how the real, temporary barricades designed to protect from external dangers are built. By choosing already broadly analysed topic the artist aims to involve the spectator into the narrative of the artworks. Through experiencing the art, the latter might be able to identify the barricades that we and others build every day and also the impact they cause.

Rafal Piesliak (born in 1983) is a young generation sculptor, he now lives and works in Vilnius. The artist graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts with a degree in sculpture, since 2003 actively participates in art exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. He exhibited his works in Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania, had 6 personal shows, one of them in Latvia (gallery “Nabaklab“, Riga, 2011). Rafal Piesliak works not only in the field of visual arts (sculpture and graphics) but also he is a stage designer and a theatre actor. This is the second Rafal Piesliak’s show at AV17 gallery.