Splinter

Splinter is a story of people living in continuous disorder and about the feeling of uneasiness that their lives provoke.

In the course of a year, I visited a family living in a house which should have fallen apart a long time ago. Yet, its residents apparently refused to accept that only order is legitimate in today’s world. They created around themselves a world resembling a warehouse – a space packed with things, whether working or not. Every time I went there, things would change their position, it seemed that the continuous change gave meaning to that reality.

At the same time, I had the feeling that something is wrong, that this perpetual motion and disorder should have end up with a catastrophe. And, somehow, this happened – the car which was owned by the family crushed, two animals died and the woman left the man and the house.

Ela Polkowska is a photographer from Poland, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, interested in documenting people, places and objects on the margins of everyday life and subjects relegated from the dominant public memory or hidden from consciousness. She studied Art History and Film Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Participated in the Mentorship Programme by Sputnik Photos. Graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava and Valand Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden. One of the artists chosen for PARALLEL Photo Platform and Futures Platform (nominated by Photofestival in Łódź).