Untitled (from the series Shelters)

Joanna Piotrowska’s psychologically charged photographs probe human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere. She investigates the interaction between the human body and the environment, which is charged with social, political and anthropological issues. Through decontextualisation and exaggeration the artist challenges seemingly obvious settings and assumptions, such as the common equation of home=family=safety. Her work thus invites viewers to reconsider certainties that were taken for granted.