Maria JJ Juchnowska

Is installation work made from ceramic waste at a stoneware factory in Bolesławiec, Poland. I have used typical decoration techniques which are used to decorate the pieces at the factory but changed classical stamp decoration to my own custom-made symbol of ovaries inspired by my previous work: “Mine is bigger than Yours”. Turning a 3-dimensional sculpture into a 2-dimensional graphic symbol of ovaries, which I have previously done in video work: ”Mine is bigger than yours” 2010 (turning it into the graphic font which I have built the words from). The “ovaries” has become an imprint “decoration symbol” and in a perverse way, it questions feminine and masculine roles in life and societies. Using color language: “red for girls” and “blue for boys” highlights stereotypes with double strength. I am inviting both men and women to a dining table filled with tableware reused from factory dumpsters, and giving them a new life by turning it into useful objects and art project installations. The “Folk” look of objects makes audiences feel comfortable with the installation and by this, I am providing safe ground both for women and men to have conversations about gender stereotypes.

The Polish version of this title is: “Zestaw obiadowy dla feministy i feministki”- ”Dining set for feminists- for him and for her” Due to grammatical differences in both languages it is impossible to directly translate the title from Polish. The Polish language gives me the ability to individually emphasize a masculine and feminine version of the word “feminist”. Meaning there are two different words describing him and her as feminist: (form taken directly from the title) male: “feminist” and female: ”feministki”.

​

The installation was created between 2015-2016.