Tomek Sikora (b. 1948) began his adventures with photography early in his twenties when he started working for Kodak studios in Paris. On his return to Poland he became a reporter for the now non-existent weekly Perspektywy. Since the 1970s he has been the author of many movie and theatre posters. In 1982 Tomek Sikora emigrated to Australia where he set up his own photography studio. Nowadays he works for top agencies in Australia, the USA, New Zealand, Belgium, and Poland.
Exhibits shown at Transparency of Things included several dozens of portraits and a similar number of real-life objects. The portraits were of people well-known and not-so-famous, young and old, representing various races and cultures. Each of them was placed upon an object which used to belong to that particular person. Sikora did it so subtly that the photo neither distorted the object’s basic shape nor changed its function; thus the portrait adapted to the nature of the souvenir. It is as if the object had been “inscribed” with the image of its ex-owner. This way photographic impressions of people, their life and desires were made.
People who contributed to that collection of “transparent” objects were particularly significant to the author. The items they gave away were hardly works of art themselves, but in this way or other they were especially important to their owners – among them were souvenirs, gadgets, favorite pieces of clothing, objects from the past. They document emotions, sentiments, dreams. All objects have been accompanied by short stories.
The exhibition at Stary Browar continued the project started by Tomek Sikora in 1999. It is when the author showed the first part of Transparency of Things at CSW (The Centre for Contemporary Art) in Warsaw for the first time.
Exhibition in Poznan was curated by Agnieszka Dąbrowska. The album which documented the event was designed by Maciej Buszewicz.