Claws

Claws is an ongoing project initiated in 2022 about my death fears and fantasies. It is also my way of dealing with recent losses, composed of photographs found on Polish funeral sites with my own twist, Minecraft installations and pictures.

There is a holiday in Poland called All Saints’ Day. From the early morning to the late night people are visiting the graves of their loved ones to lay flowers and light candles. Since I was a little girl I have been visiting a family chapel with my parents where we would open it for others to pay their respects as well. People have always been peeking in it with curiosity, and at the same time, with uneasiness. I have never understood why this chapel would evoke such feelings - it has been here for over 100 years. Recently, I started looking into this matter and found a group on social media where local citizens have been sharing dreadful stories about my great grandfather’s sister who is buried in this chapel. There is over 60 people who were being scared by their grandmothers with this one particular story: in the 1930s, my great grandfather’s sister and his wife went to a party in the mountains where all of the participants got poisoned with carbon monoxide. My great grandfather’s sister, Maria, asphyxiated. When she was being transferred in the coffin to the family chapel, the coffin fell off the wagon and opened. Maria had disheveled hair, her fingernails were ripped off and covered in blood, the inside of the coffin was horrifyingly scratched. Maria must have asphyxiated twice then.

Claws is an ongoing project initiated in 2022 about my death fears and fantasies combined with polish religion, tradition and folklore.