Toronto-based artist Gosia creates intimate moments with her collection of sculpted busts of youthful subjects. Made of gypsum and polymer clay, Gosia’s sculptures leave traditional facial signifiers and theatrical dramatics behind, replacing them with expressions of much gentler subtlety. As if candidly stopped in time, the faces of her sculptures chisel into perpetuity the fleeting moment when a glance is first cast, the downward evasion of one’s gaze as the shade of familiar dismay momentarily prevails.
Gosia delicately whittles dimension to the pupils, with several subjects positioned to look out in search of direction, and instills the sense that no one is immediately there to answer back. By keeping carvings of non-essential features minimal, the natural beauty of the human skin is accented, and even hair begins to appear like an embellishment. All other atypical additions take on majestic qualities: the richly pigmented flowers that graze one particular sculpture’s ivory lips appear as a swatch cut from an opulent garment. The perforated cloak that swathes over another girl’s head prompts the viewer to seek out her secrets; and rain, rather than simply splashing down and evaporating, oozes, drapes and binds.
