Iwona Chmielewska’s Picture Books as a Medium Opening to Otherness

Abstract

Picture books, a medium from the “picture age”, are being popularised in Poland by Iwona Chmielewska, an artist from Toruń. Her works discuss difficult issues which are often marginalized in the modern public discourse. Among them we can mention handicapped persons, illness, death, social inequality, feminine adolescence, the Holocaust, intolerance. Picture books are a hybrid art genre which has to be perceived holistically as an author’s piece close to the conception of artistic book or liberature. Picture book perception model is complex, it’s not only for children but for all, in this case age does not matter. An ideal way of experiencing a picture book is the so called Dual Audience mode in which a child reads it with a parent. The specific combination of two medias (word and image) not only provides a brand new quality for the reader, but also drives him into active analysis and interpretation, as the work does not suggest obvious solutions. Social issues presented by Iwona Chmielewska in her picture books prove that the artist perceives childhood as a state of ethical and political potentiality. Her works convey a humanistic message about the need of being open to the Other who should not meet taboo issues in its world experience.