Paulina Olowska Beckons You to the Woods

Rendering PACE’s Mayfair gallery a fiendish call to the woods, the vast canvases in Paulina Olowska’s playfully titled solo show ‘Squelchy Garden Mules and Mamunas’ envelop us in sweeping Norwegian and Polish landscapes, in which youthful figures emulate Slavic folklore’s mischievous deities and demons.

Olowska has long explored the role of women in image-making by appropriating and subverting their representation in fashion, art and mainstream culture, sometimes utilizing the compositions of existing images. Here, her subjects are mamunas (‘strangewife’ in Polish): swamp demons said to reside in streams, rivers and other waterways. In Olowska’s luscious paintings, they are carefree, seductive and at one with the natural world. Rod with Children and Mule (all works 2023) evokes the Slavic figure of Mokosh, or Mother Earth, through a character who lounges nonchalantly in the snow, wearing a large fur hat and short silk gown, revealing the crotch of her pure white tights. Dziewannas (After Branislav Šimončík) features two androgynous figures resting on the branches of a tree, one draped in a thick fur coat. They represent Dziewanna – goddess of hunting, wild nature and the moon – who is often viewed as a symbol of female freedom, evading the traditional roles ascribed to women.

In the upstairs gallery, elaborate wooden frames – carved with foliage and woodland creatures – house video works, such as Squelchy Garden Mules and Mamunas (Amy), the audio from which creates an energetic hooting and yelping soundtrack to the show. The expressive, animal-inspired costumes featured in her videos reappear downstairs in Motankas, a sculptural work containing life-sized, faceless fabric human forms surrounded by piles of hay. The figures are a homage to the Slavic goddess Morana, effigies of whom are traditionally burned and drowned on the first day of spring. Electrical Vegetables Chandelier is one of two floor-to-ceiling chandeliers – constructed with thick metal tendrils and decorated with ceramic or glass vegetables – produced in collaboration with artist Jessica Segall and inspired by the complex fungal networks that connect trees.

While such mythological figures can be read as simply creations of the imagination, they serve a greater purpose in helping us to connect symbolically with the mysteries of the world and human feelings. None of the mamunas can be understood in a binary way: they hold both virtuous and mischievous elements simultaneously. Likewise, the awe-inspiring nature that conveys both the beauty of the woods and the loneliness and terror found in its quiet solitude. There are moments when her paintings slip from realistic depictions of the forest to visions of her mamunas adrift in the cosmos. 

After years spent working in the city, the artist relocated to the small Polish spa town of Rabka-Zdroj, where she began collaborating with a handmade puppet theatre group – an experience that has influenced both her performance and sculptural practices. Calling for a greater connection between humans and nature, Olowska intricately weaves together the magic and spirituality of Slavic mythology and traditional landscape painting to interrogate women’s representation in fashion publishing. Her complete commitment to the wonder and melodrama of her subject matter is what makes her exhibitions so enjoyable. ‘Squelchy Garden Mules and Mamunas’ is wholly aware of its flamboyant theatricality, offering a welcome deluge of earthy nourishment right in the centre of London. 

Paulina Olowska's ‘Squelchy Garden Mules and Mamunas’ is on view at PACE Gallery, London until 6 January 2024

_{Main image: Paulina Olowska, Glisne (After Arthur Elgort), 2023, oil on canvas, 2.2 × 3.1 m. Courtesy: the artist and Pace Gallery, London; photograph: Damian Griffiths}