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viridescent, afire

by Malgorzata Stankiewicz

Photographs: Małgorzata Stankiewicz

Text: Małgorzata Stankiewicz

Publisher: BLOW UP PRESS

178 pages

Year: October 2025

ISBN: 978-83-977057-1-5

Price: 62 €

Comments: Cover: soft with Swiss binding and flaps Papers: Favini Remake Carapace Oyster

Małgorzata Stankiewicz’s viridescent, afire is a meditative contemplation of the unravelling of the web of life, exemplified by the expanding phenomenon of aquatic hypoxia observed in the Baltic Sea. Following her two acclaimed publications, cry of an echo (Lecturis, 2018) and Lassen (Meta/Books, 2019), viridescent, afire is a continuation of the artist’s unfaltering enquiry into the rupture between human and more-than-human living worlds. Here, however, the artist abstains from solely basing her re-search on today’s most revered source of information — science — and casts her net of enquiry further afield, visiting authors and texts from across time, space, disciplines and cultures, with a particular focus on those that emerged along the Baltic coasts.

The meticulous and meandering study, conducted by the author between 2018 and 2023, weaves together disparate thoughts and ideas such as the anthropological works of Marija Gimbutas and Alexander Gieysztor, alchemical writings of Paracelsus, C. G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, poetry of Edgar Allan Poe and the anonymous authors of The Poetic Edda, texts on ecological interdependence by Joanna Macy, Arne Næss, Rachel Carson and David Abram, theological verses of Bardo Thodol, The Quran, and finally, a number of scientific research papers on the hypoxic environment of the Baltic Sea.

In viridescent, afire, Stankiewicz shares these carefully gathered strands of knowledge alongside her own writing across the breadth of the book, in the form of fragments that intertwine with the slowly evolving views of the algal bloom formations — indicators of the hypoxic waters — that float across the Baltic Sea. The publication sees the artist work with archival footage for the first time, translating remote-sensed data from NASA and ESA into digital negatives, then hand-printing them as cyanotypes. What first appear to be painterly wave formations on the surface of the sea turn out to be the sinister heralds of dead zones beneath. Subdued and deliberate, the work unfolds across 178 pages of a Swiss-bound volume printed on Favini’s Alga Carta paper made with upcycled marine algae.

The images ebb and flow like faint reflections of one another, encouraging patient engagement and offering a space for introspection. Through repetition and variation, the work gradually opens itself to a seemingly-endless expanse of the sea. The text, like an ever-present companion, guides the viewer through the folds of the publication, speaking in many tones and tongues. Initially abstract and subtle hints accumulate and gather their momentum, revealing a multifaceted and open-ended enquiry into the origins, and outcomes, of the human estrangement from the living world that sustains us, reflecting the complexity of the topic, and the multiplicity of voices needed in the common task of repairing the fraying web of life.

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look inside

viridescent, afire

by Malgorzata Stankiewicz

Photographs: Małgorzata Stankiewicz

Text: Małgorzata Stankiewicz

Publisher: BLOW UP PRESS

178 pages

Year: October 2025

ISBN: 978-83-977057-1-5

Price: 62 €

Comments: Cover: soft with Swiss binding and flaps Papers: Favini Remake Carapace Oyster

Małgorzata Stankiewicz’s viridescent, afire is a meditative contemplation of the unravelling of the web of life, exemplified by the expanding phenomenon of aquatic hypoxia observed in the Baltic Sea. Following her two acclaimed publications, cry of an echo (Lecturis, 2018) and Lassen (Meta/Books, 2019), viridescent, afire is a continuation of the artist’s unfaltering enquiry into the rupture between human and more-than-human living worlds. Here, however, the artist abstains from solely basing her re-search on today’s most revered source of information — science — and casts her net of enquiry further afield, visiting authors and texts from across time, space, disciplines and cultures, with a particular focus on those that emerged along the Baltic coasts.

The meticulous and meandering study, conducted by the author between 2018 and 2023, weaves together disparate thoughts and ideas such as the anthropological works of Marija Gimbutas and Alexander Gieysztor, alchemical writings of Paracelsus, C. G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, poetry of Edgar Allan Poe and the anonymous authors of The Poetic Edda, texts on ecological interdependence by Joanna Macy, Arne Næss, Rachel Carson and David Abram, theological verses of Bardo Thodol, The Quran, and finally, a number of scientific research papers on the hypoxic environment of the Baltic Sea.

In viridescent, afire, Stankiewicz shares these carefully gathered strands of knowledge alongside her own writing across the breadth of the book, in the form of fragments that intertwine with the slowly evolving views of the algal bloom formations — indicators of the hypoxic waters — that float across the Baltic Sea. The publication sees the artist work with archival footage for the first time, translating remote-sensed data from NASA and ESA into digital negatives, then hand-printing them as cyanotypes. What first appear to be painterly wave formations on the surface of the sea turn out to be the sinister heralds of dead zones beneath. Subdued and deliberate, the work unfolds across 178 pages of a Swiss-bound volume printed on Favini’s Alga Carta paper made with upcycled marine algae.

The images ebb and flow like faint reflections of one another, encouraging patient engagement and offering a space for introspection. Through repetition and variation, the work gradually opens itself to a seemingly-endless expanse of the sea. The text, like an ever-present companion, guides the viewer through the folds of the publication, speaking in many tones and tongues. Initially abstract and subtle hints accumulate and gather their momentum, revealing a multifaceted and open-ended enquiry into the origins, and outcomes, of the human estrangement from the living world that sustains us, reflecting the complexity of the topic, and the multiplicity of voices needed in the common task of repairing the fraying web of life.

More books by Malgorzata Stankiewicz