Exhibition and performance for Brigade 2021, Copenhagen

“The Cosmic Wall” consists of a gradual and simultaneous deconstruction and reconstruction of a brick façade. 250 brightly pigmented lapis lazuli bricks stand in a tall stack atop one another as Nowak (dressed as a black & white clown with carnivalesque face-paint) begins to take bricks from the tallest point of this structure and construct a new secondary wall directly in front of the first. 

Speaking to the compulsive and repetitive habits we find ourselves gravitating towards in times of restriction and solitude, the garish and somewhat sinister appearance of Nowak’s performative persona resembles both an impotent puppet-master and a puppet without a guiding influence. Nowak’s work reminds us not only of a Sisyphean punishment but also of Penelope's shroud-weaving in its repetitive rhythm and the meditative, self-absorbed nature of its gestures.  At the same time, the performance's placement in the hyper-visible space of the gallery’s first-floor windows raises important questions about internal and external division and the inter-relation between estrangement, well-being, exclusion and assimilation.