Davis Coggins "Joanna Malinowska At Canada." Art in America October 2006

Art in America
Joanna Malinowska at Canada
Davis Coggins
Joanna Malinowska's exhibition "In Search of the Miraculous, Continued..." (a title borrowed from P.D. Ouspenshky's 1949 primer on mysticism) was composed of four short videos on individual monitors. Malinowska's work does not overwhelm you in a darkroom, but approaches modestly from small screens. Images that are alternately mundane and fantastic tell stories that are wistful and funny.
Part 1 (2006) is the story of an obsession. A pretty woman gathers her overcoat, preparing for a big outing. Her plan, alluded to in sketchy storyboard images interspersed with live footage invloves a paperbag full of oranges. Striding the streets of Manhattan, the woman is filmed from a low surreptitious angle. When she approaches the object of her desire the real-life pianist Piotr Anderszewski, he is leaving a rehersal at Carnegie Hall. She walks right into him, her bag opens, and the oranges tumble onto 57th street. As if on cue, Anderszewski (along with other pedestrians) stops to help her completely unaware of the hidden cameras. Its a profound version of cinema verite, areal-time convergence of cunning and humanity. Desire, reality and improvisation meet in a moment of suspense and delight. The soundtrack of the scene which barely lasts two minutes, is Anderszewski performing Bach. As the pianist has tellingly said in an interview, "Happiness doesn't come from setting something up, something you plan and achieve. Happiness comes from accidents."
Malinowska does not rely on elaborate narratives; she can create a simple indeliible image. In 'Part II' (2005) a stereo sits on a stool in the middle of snowy Baffin Island in the Canadian arctic, to which distant spot the artist herself travelled (press material claims). It is powered by a small solar panel, a plays a recording of Glenn Gould, also of music by Bach. In making a trip her hero only dreamed of, Milnowska realized the inherent worth of realizing things considered impossible. (Abandoned there, the stereo has been playing continuosly, unless already destroyed by the elements.)
'Part III' (2006) transpires in a New York subway car. In an ode to John Cage's 4'33", a young japanese woman enters the car in an elaborate gown and sits behind a miniature piano. As commuters stare at her alternating between curiosity and indifference, she rides, without playing, for the exact duration of Cage's famous silence. Its an apt update to a performance that once seemingly had the last word.
Malinowska's videos are informed by fascination with music and performance. Their celebreation of private fantasies in the public realm is, in the end, ennobling. The improbable events unfold in real time, then evaporate into minor miracles.