Malgorzata Dawidek: A NET OF EMOTIONS

Malgorzata Dawidek is an artist, writer, and researcher whose multi-disciplinary practice explores art, literature, anthropology, and medical aspects. Dawidek’s practice focuses on conflicts between the condition of the human body and language.

Commissioned by Artwalk Wakefield, A NET OF EMOTIONS is a new light installation that investigates the conflict between human feelings and the attempt to verbally express their meaning. The project addresses core questions concerning aspects of cultural inclusion, to ensure that people are seen, heard and valued, through the power of language. The artist shares the idea that there are no borders in experiencing emotions, but there are often language limitations in expressing them, and she asks the questions: Can we enrich our social knowledge on diversity by using language originating from other cultures? How can we express our feelings by reaching for foreign phrases, words and sayings?

A NET OF EMOTIONS consists of 22 LED-light plates with engraved names of emotions derived from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Hebrew, Russian, Swedish, Estonian, Polish and many other languages. The work creates a light-up dictionary; each plate containing the definition of a particular international word and its relation to the emotion that can be defined in English.

The work highlights the power and importance of multicultural and multilingual communities and society, and explores the idea of inclusion, and of otherness, through the recognition of language diversity. The project aims to expand social awareness and communication with one another, as well as exploring the dialogue of human emotions, language and the beauty that results from this.

A NET OF EMOTIONS will be viewable from the street from 24 November - 27 January 24 hours a day.

Read a Q & A with the artist Malgorzata Dawidek here. 

The artist would like to express her special thanks to: Florence Biteghe, Yvonne Feng, Nayoung Jeong, Irene Man, Nir Segal, Caryl Swift, Shino Yanai who consulted and supported the project linguistically, to Piotr Szczechowicz from the Laser Graver for his technical assistance with the project, and to Woodhead Investment for providing a shop space for the installation.