Karolina Ciecholewska

Sconce II

Karolina Ciecholewska made this piece by casting hundreds of porcelain soldiers, modelled on the toy figures found in childhoods all over the world. The repetitive casting process became a form of meditation for the artist, and it carries the work’s central idea: the dehumanisation of the individual within a mass.

The work belongs to a project exploring the gap between political power and its human cost. Its forms come from the decorative lighting of palaces and seats of power: the chandeliers, sconces and candelabras that have long served as emblems of authority. Here, these symbols of control take on a new meaning.

The choice of material is central. Porcelain has long been a marker of refinement and status, and in the 18th century, when it was known as “white gold”, it even became a currency of war. In Ciecholewska’s hands, it does two things at once: it evokes the grandeur of power and, through the fragile bodies of the soldiers, the vulnerability of those who live under it.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Type

    Pre-order only

  • Artist

    Karolina Ciecholewska

  • Produced

    2025

    Karolina Ciecholewska

    Artist

    Karolina Ciecholewska

    Born in Poland and based in New York, Karolina Ciecholewska is a multidisciplinary designer working between art and design, with a particular focus on porcelain and collectible objects. She developed her porcelain practice as an artist in residence at Cerámica Suro in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she presented her first solo exhibition, Where Light Does Not Reach. Her work has since been shown at Material Art Fair and Unique x Design in Mexico City, at Craft Days in Warsaw, and in group exhibitions in Guadalajara.

    Her practice explores power, place and identity through objects that draw on treasured possessions and traditional craft techniques. She takes familiar forms, from the decorative lighting of palaces to the toy soldier, and gives them new meanings. In her hands, the porcelain she favours carries both prestige and fragility. She won the Visteria Foundation Portfolio Talent Review, and her work has been featured in Vogue Poland Living, Dezeen, AD Mexico and Surface Magazine. She has also spoken at the Dysarium Conference in Lviv and at Southwark Untold at Tate Modern in London.

    Between craft and critique, Ciecholewska makes objects of refinement that question the structures of power they come from.

    Featured In