Biography
Self-portrait with wet feet
A self-portrait with wet feet, that is just what it is. A woman in her nightgown walking through the fresh snow. That woman is Sylvia Konior, since it is a self-portrait. It is a woman releasing the little girl inside of her. If you look behind the gloominess of the picture, you will observe a happy and cheerful child running barefoot through the snow before school. If you listen very carefully, you will hear her mother yelling: “You little fool!” Nightly adventures at -6° C, Sylvia Konior does not fear them at all. She is the Queen of Rebellion. Not allowed to play outside? Sylvia rebels. She goes out for adventure whenever and wherever she wants.
Sylvia Konior’s self-portraits represent various scenes, each unfolding a surprising plot. Sometimes it is a sudden smile, instant humour or outright hilarity. However, the real story only reveals to a patient and attentive spectator. It is similar to the moment when you slip in the street: everyone is staring at you. Although Sylvia is the model in these portraits, the main theme is the woman as a human being in general. Using brilliant humour, Sylvia creates surrealistic, but highly recognizable situations in which the female human being is trying to find her way. Driven by the questions about her family life, her body and her place in this world. And don’t you dare answer those questions!
Images expressing overtiredness, depression and feelings of powerlessness make you feel uncomfortable. A wall of Post-it notes turns into the world’s largest to-do list, a despondent woman leans against it and collapses. Simply strong images.
Dressed in wax strips, she demonstrates the torture of waxing. And tanning in the sun, what a mess. Naked under an almost transparent voile, standing in between plants covered with voile, this photographer outs herself as an alien, the odd one out, who has never been just like the others. However, she has good intentions, as the self-portrait of Madonna Sylvia learns us. She intends to be good for everyone. The typical flower in her hair is enlarged in several scenes, with great pleasure. A flower dress, a hat full of flowers and floral wallpaper: the spectator shall be happy.
Everything that you should not do, stirs her to (re)act. Everything that is forbidden, she will do first. She has a picnic in the snow. She has a morning walk in the dunes, wearing a bathrobe. The crazy housewife not wanting to be locked up. “No one would lie down in a pumpkin field with his or her naked buttocks”, she says. Only Sylvia would. Even when she was little, her mother used to say: “Put on your clothes.”
Have a closer look at Sylvia Konior’s portraits. Maybe you are on one of them yourselves.
