An artist stays a rebel for his whole life
In my younger days, we would often dispute the social norms and political correctness. You could call that the fight against the system. I reminisce of those times with fondness, although when I bring those up during family meetups, not everybody shares that fondness with me – my parents in particular. I have to admit, those times were really tough on them. The period of growing up is always riddled with those kids- parents feuds, even more so if you happen to be a child of government related workers while being an enemy of the very same government. Along with my friends, we let our artistic visions flow through street art. Every wall in Zory would end up being a part of us – it was then when upon the brick canvas Kobron was born.
Kobron – Capitalist splinter of workers’ brotherhood
At this moment, I’m explaining the acronym for the very first and for the very last time. Back in the days, we promised each other that nobody would know exact meaning. I decided to uncover this secret since other members of our group stopped identifying with that name. They never tried to return to it – most likely assuming that their youth is now long gone and it’s about time to serious up. Why is the acronym lower case? It was supposed to misdirect our audience. We wanted to be perceived as a single entity – a mysterious artist. Obviously, the acronym itself was a result of absinthial drink and was first used by Krzysztof – my dear friend. The name was then approved by me and Jaroslaw. And so our trio would operate since 1987
Kobron, the anonymous vandal of Zory
I don’t remember since when – So I will risk claiming that since always – we’ve been strong characters. As heralds of freedom and individualism, where a lone person is more important than a group, we would make up our own paths. We strongly opposed the welfare state. It would end up being somewhat ironic, given how Kobron drew its’ strength from the unison of few people – who blindly believed in its’ greatness. In those times we drew our inspiration from western street art – even though the three of us were disconnected from the newest trends given how the government controlled everything and everyone. It was apparent that the craftiness runs in the genes. And so more and more walls of our city were exposed to Kobron – be it in a template-ish way or more artistic and expressive style.
Walls to walls, clay to clay
We thought we’ve been doing pretty well. Although with the passing years and entering maturity we found ourselves lacking funds. With age, our needs grow and more and more time is needed to satisfy them. Members of our group started spending more time doing more down to earth things. I’ve branched out into painting – on walls and on canvas – hoping to succeed in the local community. Sadly, seditious art with a dose of humour proved to be too abstract among the local populace. Towards the end of 1994, due to personal matters, I started gravitating towards clay. I keep reminding myself, that clay canvas have stayed with me until today – they just evolved into three dimensions. What’s more, they are being recognized by a wider audience with each passing day. As you can see on my Instagram @Iworynkiewicz, my art is getting more popular in the west, Scandinavia, and even across the globe.