Czeslawa Wojtkowski is a contemporary fiber and collage artist. Their work externalizes reactive feelings of violence as a rebuke against America’s relentless e orts at trans and queer cultural erasure.
Wojtkowski creates a maximal, chaotic visual language through a combination of manifesto-like language and archival images of trans and cisgender women who represent non-normatively femme experiences. Their subjects include nightclub performers, pornographic models, literary and filmic depictions of mentally-ill women, and masked Tokusatsu characters, from sources often considered disreputable, such as tabloids, fetish magazines, and direct-to-video movies. This ephemera may have
been disposed of or forgotten after perfunctory use, but Wojtkowski very carefully selects the images, fabrics, and embellishments for inclusion in their work. The intentional nature of collaging and beading, both in the choice and placement of materials, is an act of resistance.
Performing such repetitious activities rejects the idea that there are those inherently unworthy of existing and becomes a call to action for queers to embody this sentiment for themselves and their community. By translating the digital to the physical, the subjects become precious treasures in
intricate, eye-catching fabric tapestries and works on paper. Wojtkowski’s work collapses time to create a nebulous space where they, the artistic subjects, and queer audiences can confront their oppressors together.
