Oppressed is an unusual and darkishly delightful triptych by Polish artist and sculptor Tomasz Górnicki, created as an illegal urban intervention in the streets of his hometown Warsaw.

The triptych consists of three pieces the bust of a woman tied around with a dark wire that has left deep marks on her skin. The sculpture has been placed on a niche in one of Warsaw’s many underpass.
Not far away there is an other bust, but this time it has been sculpted in a way that it covered with a black bin bag. The bust has been placed just over a perfectly drawn and strategically placed dripping black stripe of painting of about the same wide of the sculpture, working as a to-dimensional pedestal.

The third piece consists of the head of a man surrounded by the same kind of metallic wire as in the first one, but this time placed against a plain concrete wall covered by graffiti. His expression is severe, as severe as the words we read just bellow it, “Oppressed”, a word that became the title of this enigmatic triptych.

Together, the three pieces speak of oppression; religious, political, cultural, sexual, etc. all, according to the artist, very present in today’s Polish reality. Have a look at the images and judge by yourself.

Author: Fran

Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.