The project entitled Non-Toys encompasses a semantic area at the intersection of play psychology and ecology. By pointing out the potentially harmful nature of the objects used in the process of forming the message (various types of traps for animals), the artist attempts to playfully caricature them, initiating a semantic and structural game between their original function – the semantic field, and the conceptual – final form given through by various of artistic methods.

In accordance with this concept, the installations created by the artist are juxtaposed with a series of plush animals portraits, captured in a way that evokes the “trophies” collected by hunters.

One of the main objectives of the project is to draw attention to the psychological concept of “adult traps”. The author suggests that, just like the animals which are caught and harmed by us, also we are exposed to the traps that life sets for us.

The opinion of James E. Combs is worth mentioning, he stated that individuals who do not conform to the social vision of maturity or the acceptance of certain social roles are able to avoid the mentioned adult traps, thus they are not giving up the lifestyle that is synonymous with their youth.*

During the process of maturation, we often forget that play lies at the foundation of our development, shaping our personality and behavior norms. The mascots presented in the photographs have lost their original home. By purchasing them from second-hand stores, the author considered what emotional baggage they may have carried for their previous owners and why they were abandoned. And finally, should we perceive them as tangible evidence of the social tendency to mass-purchase and thoughtlessly dispose of objects? In this case, such objects often constitute an important element of our identity-building process.

The main ideas of the Non-Toys project is based on words of Johan Huizinga, who stated in his timeless book Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, that: Culture arises in the form of play, and that play is initially a purely human activity, individual or social. Even activities directed straight towards life’s needs may be surrounded with a form of playfulness.**

The actions mentioned by the famous historian increasingly stop to be limited as fulfillness of basic needs and become a kind of unhealthy sport, automated sadism, or thoughtless practices directed against life, as the case with recreational hunting or poaching.

For the author, the traps set for animals become a parallel of traps set for our sensitivity and morality.

Forgetting about the childlike part in ourselves or consciously destroying the natural environment, we fall into our own traps, from which there may be no escape.


*J.E. Combs, The World of Games. The Birth of a New Ludic Age, trans. Olga Kaczmarek, University of Warsaw Press, Warsaw 2011, p. 156.

**J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, trans. Witold Wirpsza and Maria Kurecka, Aletheia Publishing, Warsaw 2007, p. 79.