It’s hard to imagine a more technical title or technical work than “Portwest A721”. Ultimately it is the portrait of a tool: a pair of nitrile foam gloves from the Portwest brand, which provide a firm grip and protection against accidental cuts or bruises. But “technical,” at least in the case of Bartek Buczek’s work, doesn’t mean “dry and passionless.”

The artist imparts to the portrait of a tool just as much sensitivity as a depiction of a living person. Enlarged many times over, and cut out of a technical material (medium-density fibreboard), the huge gloves in relief, coated in gleaming lacquer, are transformed into a kind of fetish object. Buczek defines himself today primarily as an “art handler,” a notion that follows in the conceptual tradition of “dropping out” of the art world, in the spirit of the late Lee Lozano. But in this case, fleeing from the role of artist (at least with one foot) does not entail dematerialization of art as such. To the contrary: Buczek is now creating more material works than ever, and not only his own works. As an exhibition installer, a technical “ghost artist,” he becomes above all an executor of other people’s concepts, solving their production problems. In a certain sense he is a formalist enamoured of the tools and technologies of artistic production. “Portwest A721” is at the same time a work foregrounding the tools used during installation. The arrangement of the fingers of both hands can be recognized as the gesture of holding a painting up against the wall, a situation familiar from mounting any exhibition, when the technician grasps the work and the artist and curator debate whether it would look better if it were shifted a few inches to either side.

“Portwest A721” can function as an autonomous project, but it can also provide technical assistance for this purpose.

Piotr Policht