Join us for the opening of our upcoming exhibition:
Clocking Off by Rafał Zajko
Opening: Saturday 16th Sept | 12 - 8 PM
Drawing from Zajko's personal connection to his grandparents' workplace at a textile factory in post-communist Poland, the artist will present a new body of sculptural work.
Clocking Off delves into themes of labour, anxiety, and the precarity of workers' rights. The title itself references the practice of "clocking out," symbolising the end of the workday through the historical act of punching time cards. This term is linked to the colloquial phrase "pissed off," suggesting a connection between the frustration of work and a broader emotional context.
Read more about the exhibition
Rafał Zajko (b.1988, Białystok, Poland) holds an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, London, UK. Zajko’s work deals with issues around the industrial past, exploring its environmental impact in relation to working class heritage and queer identities. His sculptural practice incorporates diverse materials and processes including ceramics, ventilation systems, prosthetics and performance as a means to examine folklore, science fiction and queer technoscience, placing an emphasis on the industrial materials and processes that resonate with his heritage.
Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Amber Waves II’, Galeria Fran Reus, Palma, Mallorca, SP (2022), ‘Song to the Siren', Cooke Latham Gallery, London, UK (2022), ‘Amber Waves’, Public Gallery, London, UK (2021), ‘Resuscitation’, Castor Projects, London, UK (2020), ‘We Were Here/My Tu Bylismy’, Galeria Im. Slendzinskich, Białystok, PL (2019) and ‘Unputdownable’, White Cubicle, London, UK (2018).
Selected group exhibitions include ‘Support Structures’, Gathering, London (2023), ‘Swiat nie wierzy lzom’, Galeria Arsenal, Białystok, Poland (2022), ‘London Open 2022’, Whitechapel Gallery, London Uk (2022), ‘New Contemporaries 2021’, South London Gallery, London, UK (2021), ‘26 Degrees East’, Wiels Annex, Brussels, Belgium (2020), ‘Age of Ephemerality’, X Museum, Beijing, CN (2020), 'Clay TM’, TJ Boulting, London, UK (2020) and ‘Bold Tendencies 2020’, London, UK (2020). In 2020 Zajko was the recipient of the Bow Graduation Studio Award.
He is currently working on a public commission with Wysing Arts Centre and St. Peters School in Cambridge, performance commission ‘Techno Harvest’ for Deptford X festival and a new sculptural commission for Kunsthalle Vienna in autumn 2023.