“Born in Poland in 1982, Monika K. Adler grew up in an Eastern Europe suffused with memories as well as more tangible reminders of large-scale assaults on human bodies, particularly female bodies, motivated by ideology and ethnic hatred. From the Nazis, to the Soviet invaders (who victimised her grandmother’s cousin) to the rape wars of
“Deep and powerful, personal, encoded, cryptic, ominous and ambient iconography and symbolism. Made public, shared, maybe even enforced and inflicted. Open to, allowing, encouraging and provoking interpretation and other engagement. Production and end-result as therapeutic action. A constant state of cease-fire and false-security, both to the pleasant menace, but also the disturbing charm, which together
“At first glance, Monika K. Adler’s work recalls that of fellow eastern European photographer Jan Saudek. Solitary subjects, nostalgic sepia-tones, a focus on feminine beauty ? in cell-like settings. But where Saudek’s caged birds exist in a timeless isolation, the outside world may more rudely intrude in Ms Adler’s tableaux vivants. At least that’s the
