Topography of the Face

The face emerging from the darkness in the linocut by Leszek Kiljański comes from the world of mysterious and fantastic phenomena, as if taking place outside of time, in a parallel reality. The portrait presents a man with the outline of his face elicited by a deep, high contrast, but with most of it left in the shadow. It reveals instead the peculiar characteristics of the physiognomy, covered with a variety of constructions and organisms living on the sea bed, lichens, crustaceans, corals or sea anemones. This apparition does not seem to be the symptom of a disease, but of the symbiotic relationship into which underwater organisms grew and firmly conjoined with human tissue, while leading their latent, inanimate life. [F. Pregowski]