Władysław Hasior, Portrait of a Birdman, 1972

Wladyslaw Hasior's work constantly revolves around associations related to simple folk religiosity, Baroque turpism, rural processions and all rituals that assume perfomativeness. In the case of the birdman, Hasior operates with contours evoking the silhouettes of saints on oleo-prints hung under a low wooden ceiling. At first we might mistake the bird's miniature figure for a cross demonstratively held by martyrs, godly madmen, virtuous husbands and women; but is this the visual meaning of the hooded figure? What comes to mind is the disturbing Yurodivian, a madman-bird-breeder without identity, assembled from arte povera artifacts and fixed in his coffin portrait, characterized by his only animal attribute. The dark baroque with a turpist note is perhaps that fifth element that the artist often invoked in his theoretical reflections - the human capacity for fantasy.