The works from this series, initiated in 1975, typically resulted from the use of two relief printing matrices—the simple dash- or slash-based motifs arranged thereon, of irregular thickness, established an antithetical relationship.

In a process thus defined, printing on translucent paper produced highly dynamic images composed of patterns crossing at various angles and with varying frequency.

Resembling faulty structures, these abstract depictions—outcomes of an essentially anti-printmaking method—allowed readings, on the one hand, in terms of exploration or representation of imprinting, and on the other, concerning the emphasis on errors present in a fixed notational system (System of Notations, 1975).

Several Notations were printed using a stencil, partially covering the matrix and thus allowing to obtain regular shapes. Consequently, the series has been extended to include allusive themes (Truncated Pyramids, 1976) as well as quotations. Nogi z waty Dawida (1975), for instance, is a rastered image of Michelangelo’s famous statue, with cotton wool applied. The work is an ironic take on the Polish idiomatic expression mieć nogi jak z waty (‘when your legs feel like jelly’; the noun wata translates as ‘cotton wool’): in its delicacy, and also in the lability of the substance, one could see the antithesis of what had traditionally been characteristic of a sculptor’s labour—of the hard work of carving blocks of marble.

Written by Krzysztof Siatka