SITPChem SPECIAL PRIZE
Maria Hrabia - Między rdzą a życiem (Between Rust and Life)
My work is a personal record of how nature slowly prevails over what humans have built. I was inspired by forgotten places — old factories and rusting machines. I wanted to capture the moment when steel ceases to be hard and sterile and begins to surrender to time. Every rusty streak on these bolts and chains is, for me, a trace left by rain and wind.
The central figure is torn between two worlds. Her left side refers to the chimneys visible in the background — symbols of industry that were once powerful and now are simply crumbling. On the other side, her face is being overtaken by moss, which unhurriedly claims the place of metal. I wanted to show that nothing is eternal, and that within the very process of destruction, in the rough texture of rust, there is a certain truth. This is my vision of a return to origins, where decay becomes the beginning of something new and far more authentic than what is new and perfectly smooth.
