Chopin
The idea to create series of prints on Chopin’s came into my mind after one of my recent conversations with my Mother where she has shared again her life long memory of her Grand Mother Angelina. I have never met Angelina and all I can remember my childhood surrounded by stories about Angelina, her predecessors and about Polish uprise against Russian Tsar. I believe that it was the January Uprising. 30 years after Chopin. January Uprising was the longest Lithuanian and Polish uprising against the Russian Empire: it began January 22, 1863, and the last insurgents were not captured until 1865. It started as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Russian Army. The uprising was soon joined by various politicians and high ranking Polish officers from the tsarist army. After the collapse of the uprising, harsh reprisals followed. According to Russian official information 18,672 people were exiled to Siberia. (all information above according to wikipedia)
In my mother’s memories Angelina had only few things in possession which would remind about her “foreign” background. Those included Holy Bible, very thick cook book in Polish, love and collection of amazing indoor plants Oleanders, Hibiscuses etc as well as her polish traditions.
My latest works incorporate metaphors, often of my roots and my place; of what I have left behind and where I am headed off to. Prints or would call them modified prints made on a view of Wollongong Harbour while listening Chopin and thinking of my great grand mother.
