Installation of The Peterborough Child as a permanent work
2015, Wysing Arts Centre
Rajkowska's ongoing public art project, The Peterborough Child, became a new permanent work at Wysing Arts Centre with a special event to mark its launch on Saturday 20 June, 2015.
The Peterborough Child was started in 2012 and has travelled to Poland and back again and inspired both a film and a great deal of unwanted controversy. That controversy led it to remain mothballed in storage in Peterborough for nearly three years.
The work has the appearance of a staged archaeological dig; Rajkowska describes it as 'a chakra - a place of focused, accumulated energy'. At the centre of that energy is a tiny replica skeleton of a thirty week old foetus. An emotive image, but one intended as a response to the location of Peterborough as a site of ancient graves. After nearly three years in storage, Wysing Arts Centre has been given custodianship of The Peterborough Child.
The Peterborough Child was started in 2012 and has travelled to Poland and back again and inspired both a film and a great deal of unwanted controversy. That controversy led it to remain mothballed in storage in Peterborough for nearly three years.
The work has the appearance of a staged archaeological dig; Rajkowska describes it as 'a chakra - a place of focused, accumulated energy'. At the centre of that energy is a tiny replica skeleton of a thirty week old foetus. An emotive image, but one intended as a response to the location of Peterborough as a site of ancient graves. After nearly three years in storage, Wysing Arts Centre has been given custodianship of The Peterborough Child.
Special thanks to Donna Lynas for generosity and patience and to Richard Decordova for standing up to this unusual challenge.