3 rolls 1,200 cm x 40 cm, digital print on washi paper, Aso, 2015
Work on multiple levels of perception capturing an encounter with Japanese culture. The title of the work – Keirō no hi – refers to the Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日), which is a Japanese public holiday celebrated annually to honor elderly citizens. It started in 1966 as a national holiday and was held on every September 15. For Rożnowska it is an extremely fascinating event, as for years she has expressed interest in the process of passing and the way the elderly function, marginalized in Western art.
The very use of a narrow and long roll resembles the silk rolls used to sew kimonos (Rożnowska has used exactly the same size). The paper is again traditional Japanese washi, this time quite flexible and absorbent, coming from Awagami Factory run by the Fujimori family in Tokushima. Flat forms, resembling abstract patterns on fabric, became the leitmotif of the work. These are shape forms, appropriately reduced and devoid of unnecessary details, of silhouettes of elderly residents of Ubuyama-mura, whom the artist met during the local celebration of Keirō no hi. Depending on the way the work is exhibited, one can get closer or further away from them…
Aleksandra Jatczak-Repeć