alicja kozlowska's embroidered art series lands in south korea

Alicja Kozlowska rolls out her embroidery in south korea

Polish artist Alicja Kozlowska returns with a new series of textile works as part of her ongoing project titled: Embroidered Ordinariness – Performances. This time, Kozlowska introduces her craft to South Korea, where convenience stores reign supreme. Known for her hyper-realistic depiction of consumer goods (ranging from soda cans to bags of chips and packs of candy), the artist continuously draws inspiration from everyday life and objects, as well as her fascination with Pop Art, in an effort to popularize embroidery crafts.

Embroidered Ordinariness – Performances in Seoul, 2023 | all images courtesy Alicja Kozlowska

scattering realistic consumer good sculptures across stores

In this case, Alicja Kozlowska (see more here) scattered her realistic embroidered artworks across convenience stores and supermarkets in South Korea’s Seoul and Busan. Some nestle among bags of real candies, while others hide in plain sight next to rows of cans in vending machines or fridges. The difference is undetectable when sweeping a quick glance. According to the artist, this performative act of infiltrating her artwork into real-life spaces is integral to her artistic activity. ‘For my projects, I most often use the space of large-format stores. I do it in different parts of the world, this time South Korea. The main reason I make my performances is that I can observe the most honest reactions to my work from people that are usually not art lovers,’ notes Kozlowska.

Seoul, 2023

observing how the audience responds to the ‘performance’

The audience’s reactions vary greatly, often depending on the culture of a given place, civilization, or cultural development. Koslowska noticed that she arouses the greatest interest among relatively young people and the older generation. The former are interested in the idea and meaning of the message, while the latter focuses more on the technique of performance and mapping details. ‘I think performance is a great fit with a fiber art, but it’s not very common, which makes it even more surprising and interesting. In my opinion, textiles are not that fragile and are meant to be experienced!‘ she concludes.

Busan, 2023