Malgorzata Bany

1. What motivates you to make?

A big part of my incentive to create objects comes from the appreciation of their importance. The impact they have on our everyday lives, as well as our personal environment and rituals. The most alluring ground to explore is the poetic and abstract qualities of work – the space between utilitarian functionality and visual pleasure. From an artist’s point of view, the motivation or need to create seems inherent and hard to define but sharing the outcome of intuitive and personal explorations is part of it. Coming from a fine art background and having trained as a painter, I naturally gravitate towards the sculptural, tactile, and painterly. This also defines my method of working too. The specific and personal way of collecting ideas, objects and conducting research; how I clarify objectives, the linear and progressive exploration of form, and the interest in relationships between objects and space.

2. What and/or who are you most inspired or influenced by?

My inspirations span across the natural tactile world, to the history and architecture of urban environments. The North Sea cliffs inspired a whole collection of work – particularly the smoothness of flint polished by waves and the porosity of chalk receptive to wind and moisture. I often focus on texture, representing the natural rather than man made, the eroded rather than built. Recently I’ve drawn inspiration from architectural details of modernist buildings like Le Corbusier’s ‘Unite d'Habitation’ in Marseille, and closer to home, the Barbican Centre in London. I used these buildings as a starting point in the research and design process of my Pilotis collection. What I try to encapsulate in my work is the essence of observation or experience, translated into abstract form.

3. What is your unique approach to your craft, and how have you honed your skills?

The principles of sensuality, tactility and minimalism are important to my practice. I like to think that simplicity requires mindfulness, positivity and self-restraint.

For me, the key to achieving my intended artistic objective is the process of visualisation. At the point when this image becomes close to an idea, I attempt to transform it into a physical object. I don’t use modern techniques to support visualisation and I am often personally involved in supervising the design and implementation of a prototype, or simply perform the work myself.

4. What is your defining or proudest moment as a maker so far?

A few of my pieces that were inspired by the architecture and culture of Florence, were presented in 2019 at the New Art Centre, Roche Court.

My works were also presented on several occasions, following invitation by The New Craftsmen, at the London Design Festival and are successfully shown on foreign markets, including USA, Canada, Korea, France, Italy and Poland. In 2020, the Acies composition of objects was shown at the Hauser & Wirth Somerset gallery in an exhibition titled ‘Realising Form’ which elaborated on the relationship of opposites; light and shadow, soft lines contrasted with sharp angles, monolithic and gentle form.

5. What is your dream project?

Every exhibition and every opportunity to show a work to a wider audience is a dream project – a place for each artist to validate their ideas and the accuracy of the message conveyed through the work.

A personal goal would be to see a wide spectrum of works from all my collections so far within one space. However greedy it might sound, it would be a sheer extension of the very way these objects were created, one in response to the other.