The Taste of Cherry

The premiere of the newest photo project “The Taste of Cherry by Tomasz Wysocki will take place at the Leica 6×7 Gallery Warsaw this April, vernissage is scheduled for April, 20th at 7 pm. Young, promising artist returns with new series of large-scale photographs that are posing some serious existential questions. From the formal point of view, he is taking much from the old masters. The frames are dark and disturbing. Even though Wysocki’s vision has been organized with care for details, the viewer still finds own space for interpretation.
This is the second show of Tomasz Wysocki at 6×7 Leica Gallery Warszawa. The previous exhibition “Beginnings”, taking place in 2015, was the debut of this 25-year-old artist and gained exceptionally warm reception of the audience.
Through „The Taste of Cherry” series Wysocki is examining the sense of human existence. In ordered to do that the artist creates a group of mysterious characters. He comments on it: […] I am fascinated with human and what one may create around this creature. How human’s nature is entangled in the process of artistic creation. I used to treat my models purely materialistic, as a form of my frame. Now I am interested how working with a model changes the whole experience and final effect. The hours spend together, feelings developed during work – it all sums up.
Wysocki’s approach is to create a subjective vision of consecutive phases of our lives. Birth, growing up, maturity and old age are given in allegorical, full of hidden meanings and meticulously composed photographs. All the imagined situations are taking place beyond time and space. As a result, the maximum effect is built upon the form and hidden anecdote. The precision of the details is astonishing. The overall impression is amplified by the large-scale format. Last but not least: the anxiety, characteristic for the previous works is still present in “The Taste of Cherry”.
On the one hand, “The Taste of Cherry” could be a continuation of Artist’s previous searches. On the other, it opens up new investigations such as the conscious and sensitive use of the light and shadow. The light becomes next hero of Wysocki’s images, almost like in expressive Caravaggio’s paintings. The atmosphere of the photographs is serious, almost dark. About the work with models, the artist says: I used to treat people in front of the lens as the form that I set up with a perfect precision in front of the camera. This time, I wanted to work more like a film director. Through attempts, tips and conversations, I tried to enter the actors into the space of the set design and observe how they find themselves in it, not just imposing the final composition in 100%, as it happened in my previous cycles.
The process behind „The Taste of Cherry” was indeed like a movie production. Firstly, a few years ago when Wysocki just has started his studies at Photography Department in National Film School in Łódź, Poland, the first scenario and detailed sketches of the scenes were created. Each element was meticulously planned. In the meantime, funds for the project were being raised. Wysocki engaged a group of 60 people: actors, set designers, plan managers, make-up artists, costume designers, stuntmen, and video operators. Photo sessions were carried out in Łódź, in a huge 2000 m2 studio.
It is uneasy to track down the aesthetical inspirations inside “The Taste of Cherry”, but from the practical point of view, Wysocki’s methods are similar to those used by masters of photography like Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Thomas Demand or Paweł Bownik. Wysocki himself admits to the fascination rather with painting and sculpture: Egon Schiele, Vermeer, Lucian Freud, Caravaggio – these are the names that are particularly fascinating to me now. It is not so obvious, but I see in their work many staging-related elements that inspire me and which I try creatively use in my work.
Tomasz Wysocki planned his project with care for details; however, the photographs were designed to leave room for interpretation of the recipient. This is the kind of a statement that can be found in the famous painting by Paul Gaugin, entitled “Who we are, where we come from, where we are going to”. “The Taste of Cherry” created by Tomasz Wysocki lances original modern development of thoughts expressed by Gaugin, that is embodied in 12 large-format photographs.

Tomasz Wysocki, „The Taste of Cherry”
Opening night: 20.04.2018, 7 pm
Exhibition: 21.04 – 03.06.2018
Curator: Rafał Łochowski

Acompagning programme:
Meet the author session with Tomasz Wysocki, moderating Kuba Mikurda – 10.05.2018, 6 pm
Guided tour on “Taste of Cherry” exhibition, Tomasz Wysocki, Rafał Łochowski – 24.05. 2018, 6 pm