Installation view of Michael Antkowiak, What Right Has My Head to Call Itself Me
Social networking has proliferated in our modern society, drastically changing how we communicate with and view each other. As more images and information are circulated, ideas of creativity, originality, and ownership are changed. To quote an excerpt from the movie, “The Tenant” by Roman Polanski:
“At what precise moment…
…does an individual stop being who he thinks he is?
You know, I don’t like complication.
Cut off my arm. I say, ‘Me and my arm.’
You cut off my other arm, I say, ‘Me and my two arms.’
You…take out…
…take out my stomach, my kidneys,
assuming that were possible…
And I say, ‘Me and my intestines.’
Follow me?
And now if you cut off my head…
…would I say, ‘Me and my head’ or ‘me and my body’?
What right has my head to call itself me?
What right?”
This quote means to address the extent to which we are able to claim ideas and objects as our own, directly or indirectly. When we create something, such as a photograph, and post it on our Facebook page or Twitter feeds, is it still considered ours? Likewise, do the sentiments that we associate with those captured moments remain individual or are they too disseminated as part of the collective of images? Michael Antkowiak’s exhibition, aptly named What Right Has My Head to Call Itself Me, strives to visualize this dilemma, encouraging the viewer to consider ideas of individuality and society and how the two become intersected through the acquirement of new tech.
Michael Antkowiak, oil on canvas, 12″ x 16″
Antkowiak’s collection of works consists of still-lifes drawn from his own photographs as well as those from social media. They represent intimate and serene candid moments from a domestic setting, with all of them placed on a uniform 12” x 16” canvas; it is as much a photo album, invoked with personal significance, as it is a collection of paintings. Though no clear identities are depicted, each work does incorporate a more reflective human presence, whether the subjects are examining a photograph, inspecting a piece of fruit, or even just staring at their own sneakers.
Michael Antkowiak, Swan (left) and Daffodils (right) each: oil on canvas, 12″ x 16″
Michael Antkowiak, Sneakers, oil on canvas, 12″ x 16″
The style, although representational, appears ephemeral and nondescript, though not as sporadic and dynamic as an Impressionistic style. There is solemnity and a certain sense of nostalgia evoked here, as if the memory is beginning to fade along with the photograph. The figure’s identities diminish into obscurity and generalizations.
Michael Antkowiak, Blue robe, oil on canvas, 12″ x 16″
What Right Has My Head to Call Itself Me is a personal and simultaneously broadening exhibition that examines the impact of societal factors in shaping individual experiences. Antkowiak provides a comprehensive look into how concepts of identity and ownership – not physical ownership, but rather emotional and ontological ownership of an event or memory – are influenced by technologies like social media. What is increasingly evident is that as new innovations start permeating through pre-conceived limits of communication into a more collective entity, it becomes ever more difficult to distinguish what is self and what is separate. Just as head cannot justifiably claim itself when it is removed from its body, how is it possible that we can claim what moments are ours when we are so socially interdependent?
Text and photo: Simon Termine
*Exhibition information: October 7 – 29, 2016, Wil Kucey Gallery, 1183 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Wed – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm.