Rafał Zajko is a Polish artist working and living in London. His work deals with issues around industrialisation and technological progress, exploring their environmental impact in relation to working-class heritage and queer identities. His sculptural practice incorporates diverse materials and processes including ceramics, ventilation systems, prosthetics, and performance as a means to examine folklore, science fiction and queer technoscience, emphasising the industrial materials and processes that resonate with his heritage.
Rafał’s recent projects include: Bread and Milk at Kunsthalle Vienna (November 2023)– works around parallels between industrial cultivation of grain and milk in connection to body politics, gender and history of nurture and desire; Clocking Off at Queercircle in London – a solo show aiming to articulate the common anxieties or precarious workers’ rights, environmental emergency, and the prospect of intensifying conflict; Techno Harvest at Deptford X Festival – a performative parade blending the memories of the 1998 Love parade (the year Deptford X started) with other visual tropes of the public happenings like Catholic processions, workers strikes and harvest celebrations; and We Were Here – Public Commission with Wysing Arts Centre – located at St Peter’s School in Huntington – developed from a year of collaborations with 270 year 7 students on the subject of their ideas and hopes for the future.