Sabina Kulicka was born in the Czech Republic in 1959. From 1982 to 1988 she studied painting and drawing at the Ecole Supérieure d'Art Visuel in Geneva (dissertation: Vanishing Twins) and from 2001 to 2003 Art Education at the University of Bern (dissertation: Ritual to overcome the patriarchy, Exhibition Project).
The works presented on this website are a small selection from the more extensive groups of works. They were exhibited in various galleries and are partly privately or publicly owned. Some are still available. Their sizes range from postcard to 2 x 3 metres
During the creation of this group of works from 1986 to 1988 I was not aware that at the same time medical research was looking into the phenomenon of the vanishing twin in the womb. It was assumed that at the beginning of a pregnancy there are two or more fertilized eggs whose souls communicate together. Additionally, psychotherapy is concerned with the consequences that the death and vanishing of a twin can have on the surviving one. Only years later did I realize that I must have painted memories of my prenatal time in this group of works.
These drawings were created after the Vanishing Twins. Whereas memories and self-perception were important in relation to the first group of works, the observation of the external form of a body and the fast changing of the lines, the movement, were crucial to these drawings.
When this group of works was created I had only just come across the theories regarding the matriarchal aesthetic. Scholarship has dated art that was shaped by a matriarchal society to 10'000 to 3'000 years BC. The oval shape is recognized as a female sign. When working on this group of works, I was reading books on matriarchal societies and have based both conceptually and formally almost all paintings on the oval shape.
With the plants I departed from the expression of the body or its symbols such as the oval shape in the group of works named archaeology just mentioned above. Plants provide fragrances, active agents, food and remedies. And they are decorative… The decorative has a ritual origin. If you read about ethno-botany you become aware that there are societies in which plants or nature in general are highly respected or even honoured. Plants are believed to have specific personalities with whom one can communicate in a shamanistic way. This is the underlying aspect of the plant paintings.
The rooms for therapy are models. Aspects of the group of works Botany and Archaeology merge into each other. They are fictitious places that could, however, be translated into real rooms for therapy. Unfortunately, the creation of this group of works was interrupted by the fictitious exhibition project "Ritual to overcome the patriarchy" in the course of my further education and I have not been able to resume the work. To date I am not able to comment on these works; possibly the distance in time between their creation and the present is not yet sufficient.