Masquerade

On the dichotomy face – mask Jablonski bases his paradoxical story about man. The face is an emanation of a person’s inner self, a representation of the essence of his identity, it is the truth. The mask, on the other hand, is an image that comes from outside, it is a prepared disguise that protects, repels, gives a sense of security, covers up. It is a lie. So what are the images presented by Jablonski? They cannot be a face. Frozen, devoid of emotion, detail, identification, eyes, they resemble superimposed masks, but they are not them directly – they do not come from outside, they do not try to change anything. The representations the artist uses are non-faces and non-masks. Rather, they are a plastic sign, of what happens in between. The state in which we transform ourselves, leaving one and taking on another role. Non-faces, non-masks are a sign of human individuality, which is formed at the junction of the face and the substitute layers put on it. By bringing us into the space between, the artist provokes us to take up the game. To confront our own masks, to find the moment when we change them and why. He seems to ask: how much is the mask in the human face, and how much is the face in the mask?

Paulina Stępka