Natalia LL: Yes (1971)

offset on paper, ed. 3/8
Purchased, 2017
Keywords

Natalia LL is one of the best-known Polish neo-avant-garde artists, who has been featured in international feminist exhibitions and publications since the 1970s. In parallel with defining her own artistic position, she has developed her own individual style, using erotic photography as one of her tools in her works inspired by pop art, conceptual art, linguistics and visual poetry. In the poster-like offset print TAK, the same composition is repeated three times, printed in red, black and green. The top three panels show female lips in three phase photographs, with the word TAK (“yes”) below them – inferring that the lips, painted and sensual, form the three sounds of the word “tak”. The mouth, a part of the body depicted in a pop-ish manner, symbolizes a woman who, although she tries to express herself, her body is constantly objectified and fetishized, leaving her voice silent. In the original installation from 1971, the prints covered the walls of a gallery like wallpaper: the gesture of mechanical reproduction not only reveals a familiar process of consumer art, or pop, but also amplifies and devalues the one-word, silent message: “yes”.