Karolina Jabłońska Eating of a self-portrait, 2024

This large-scale work by Karolina Jabłońska presents a figure biting a piece of paper depicting a sketch of the artist outlined in dark sinewy lines. The drawing presents a generalized self-portrait that appears frequently throughout her practice, with identifiable characteristics including a captivating facial expression, large brown eyes, and prominent bushy eyebrows. Yet, whilst her main protagonist appears here again, this piece belongs to a series of works centered on the theme of internal conflict. This belongs to a wider conceptual framework exploring the desire to theorize oneself, often defined as auto-fiction and auto-theory that lies at the core of the artist’s practice.

Jabłońska’s works often invoke a wide range of art historical references, in this case her work Eating of a self-portrait bears an uncanny thematic affinity to Francisco de Goya’s masterpiece, Saturn Devouring His Son, 1819 – 1823. The seemingly brutal nature of Jabłońska’s image, accentuated by the tear in the paper, could be seen as a commentary on notions of selfhood, as well as the lack of visibility and under-representation faced by women. This commentary holds particular significance in the context of Poland, where generations of feminist movements have tirelessly advocated for societal transformation. The work then, suggests an allegory for the entrapment of women, and by implication the existential threat to their bodies and restrictions imposed by political realities.