Alicja Biała: Beneath the Soft Ground, Hard Ground

Titled in reference to both the medium and the subject, Beneath the Soft Ground, Hard Ground presents a collection of zinc and copper plate etchings that play with this history. Alicja Biala resurfaces fragments of collective ancestry and cultural tradition that she manipulates, often humorously, to bring the scars of the past into the present, as well as celebrate its fruits. Folk traditions, paganism, migration and politics are recurring themes, as they act like characters in a great debate between then and now. Classical in feel but playful in tone, Biala’s work could be read as an exercise in imagining both history and futurity, with worlds that ask us the question: where might we have been, and where will we go?