Santa Barbara

„Santa Barbara“* is a personal story, a kind of a diary of a little girl, who wanted to be a saint and a martyr. It is a story of a childish fascination of katholic narration, symbols and aesthetics. Holy images, incenses, ribbons and white dresses; relics, stigmata and blood.
The artwork, however, shows also dark sides of this fascination, which slowly reveal themselves shedding layers – showing hypocrisy, false and superficiality of what should have been spiritual and from definition good. The girl grows up, slowly opens here eyes and sees through, as one by one curtains fall off and reveal the reality of adult world.
Awakening – seeing for herself and leaving the Church is mixed with fascination of the Western pop culture which appeared in Poland right before and after the fall of communism. Its accidental and maybe banal manifestations influence the girl’s choices. The girl has to decide: should she go to the Church for the Sunday mass or stay home and watch an American soap opera?
The girl grown up today she has to deal with consequences of her choices, she counts with the past.
What influence has religious ethics and aesthetics on the girl? What fascinates her? What scares her? What is the role of coincidence in decision making? What will she choose?
The artwork is a series of different situations shown in comic style. There are 14 scenes / stations – resembling katholic Way of the Cross. However, the comics is 3-dimensional and up-scaled and consists of various layers. Its form symbolises layers of superficial spirituality and religiousness, behind which there is a deeper meaning and different (real?) world.

*„Santa Barbara“ is an American soap opera which was aired on Polish TV in the end of the 80s. The series was aired Sundays at 11 AM.