As a young enthusiast of adventure and travel novels of Alfred Szklarski, I often used to navigate the world together with their main character Tomek Wilmowski, and together with him I experienced fascinating adventures. The imagination of a young teenager was imbued with these places, people and impressions. At the beginning of the 1980s, in the days of empty shop shelves and parents’ everyday struggle to provide the necessities of life, the book was often the only gateway to another, more interesting life. My peers and i not only had no hope to go abroad, but we even did not dream of doing so. ‘Abroad’ was some incomprehensible, restricted and dangerous land /against which our communist government protected us to the best of their ability… for my own and all my close people’s good. Of all the parts I read, the one I remember best is the fourth book Tomek on Yeti’s Trail.
Tomek Wilmowski and his friends go to India and Nepal. They want to rescue a lost scientist, Doctor Rawlinson who went on an academic expedition to find a Yeti – the abominable snowman. During the expedition, the protagonists scale mountains and hear local stories about this mythical representative of an unidentified species, which in the novel is an element of an exotic mystery. It is a symbol of the unknown, mystical and unchartered world, whose discovery was and still is the dream of all young people. In Szklarski’s tale, looking for this creature was first and foremost a pretext to show the beauty, magic and horror of the mountainous landscapes and to get familiar with the cultural diversity of the Himalaya region.
Local people generally believe in the existence of Yeti. Similarly, people living in other parts of the world believe in the existence of cryptids, Bigfoot called the Sasquatch in the USA and Canada, Loch Ness monster in Great Britain, Yowie in Australia or the sea monster Kraken. In Poland everybody has heard about Basilisk. The existence of mythological creatures, which are hunted by cryptozoologists, does not find confirmation in zoology yet the belief in them is deeply rooted in each of us.
The images of cryptids inhabiting inaccessible places, mainly forests, are ubiquitous all over the world. The creatures whose existence is not scientifically confirmed, have been exciting imagination for ages. Mysterious forests, dark and full of eerie, unsettling sounds, provide an ideal place for spinning tales about these beings. Human fascination with the ‘unexplained’ and an exaggeration of ‘the unknown’ facilitates this process. It evades logic, leads to creating vivid images of them. They often appear in folk tales and art.
Forests are ideal shelters for them, as they have always been shrouded in mystery. Densely wooded areas, where the light barely breaks through the tree canopies, breed anxiety. Weird sounds, snaps of branches or howling of the wind may stir your imagination to the limit. In such an environment, everything may be supernatural and terrifying. This is where the legends start about strange creatures inhabiting inaccessible sites. Folk culture often attributes to these beings quite supernatural features. In the mythologies of many cultures there appear gods, demons and hybrids of creatures living in the woods. With time, these beliefs have evolved and their place was taken over by cryptids which combined elements of fantasy and pseudoscience.
Bigfoot is the most famous forest cryptid. This humanoid being, over two-metre-tall, is supposed to resemble a monkey. Its legend is rooted not only in South America but also in Asia (as Yeti) or Australia (as Yowie). Footprints, unverified video recordings and local tales build their mythologies. Mysterious forests, their home, are strange and unsettling places. Human ability to authenticate the existence of cryptids may be a will to give sense to this phenomenon and to seek what evades rational cognition. They explore dark, unfamiliar aspects of our personality and the world which remain beyond control and awareness. Hiding deep in the forest, the creatures are a symbolic projection of our fears and threats which we are afraid to face.
Their presence in tales allows us to imagine our internal conflicts. The forest may be interpreted as a symbol of the unconscious which is ruled by its own, unrecognized, astonishing and often illogical laws. It becomes a set of archetypes, symbols and puzzles concerning the hidden problems, desires and questions, characteristic of its age and stage of development. The forest is a huge mystery which may be interpreted as a representation of the unpredictable and fascinating nature of the human mind. Going deep into this forest, where evil never sleeps, we experience darker and darker impressions and gain an alarming knowledge about ourselves.
It is these spaces that Marcin Zawicki, artist from Gdansk, penetrates in his artistic work. His oneiric narrations are a unique combination of realism and fantasy. In the painterly representations he creates, the figures and landscapes balance between the real and metaphysical world. The protagonists of his paintings are hybrid creatures resembling people but at the same time being hard to define figures – cryptids, but recognized and named only in the artist’s mind. The boundaries between reality and dream are blurring in a fascinating and unsettling way. His artworks are full of rich representations which affect us immediately, like fairy-tale illustrations, yet with a dose of melancholy and a particular fear. Zawicki explores and creates imaginary worlds. He touches upon both physical, and psychological themes as well as metaphysical ones. His figures make an impression of a symbiotic link with the surroundings, which may be read as a commentary on the contemporary bond between people and nature. These hybrids, resembling people, seem to grow out of the ground or are a part of some ecosystem full of subtle drama. Their bodies, similar to human, are built from plant elements. They ideally merge with the environment, becoming indiscernible for people. These paintings become an instrument for fathoming the human mind and for discovering the mysterious, often dark corners of our imagination.
Zawicki’s activities are a form of contemporary allegory. His figures are symbolic archetypes. You can find in them references to mythology, religion, culture or art of Baroque. We may treat his artworks as a tool to discover the mysterious parts of our imagination. The physicality of his protagonists, organicity and affiliation with nature are a metaphor of harmony, and at the same time suggest its inevitable degradation in contact with reality. What makes a key to recognize the hidden meanings in the artist’s work is the question about the condition of the human psyche. The noticeable collapse of authorities and a shaken faith in science push us onto the peripheries of cognition. The momentum of civilization, climate changes, unbridled consumption lead us to the inevitable end. We search for something that might balance the vision of this fall. Take us into the spaces which will confirm our convictions. Reptilians know more. Let’s look for them! They will save us. The Earth is flat. We have known it since the Middle Ages, only somebody took this knowledge away from us. Now we are retrieving it. The old ‘knowledge’ served in an attractive form by the social media gurus is becoming a new knowledge. It is becoming the truth. It is also an escape from the barrage of terrifying information about disasters, pandemics, wars. Among the ubiquitous chaos we look for a ‘safe haven’. Zawicki asks a question: is there such a place within us? The artist finds the feeling of security in the aesthetics of childhood or youth. In the days when he was growing up, life was easier, the models clearer. Within us is a need to return to those times and places. It used to be somehow better, safer. Generated by American productions and colourful TV channels, the world of the 90s, when the artist was growing up, was so fascinating and so secure.
…30 odd years later I fulfilled my childhood dream. I went to Nepal. I admired the majesty of the Himalayas for several weeks. The magic of the mountains in its purest form. The incredibly clear sky with millions of stars. I did not see the Yeti, but till now I am not sure if it could not see me…