BOBI TEDDY BEAR Sculpture

In Emilia Switala’s sculptural practice, the teddy bear functions as a formal and emotional carrier rather than a narrative figure. Emerging from a painterly background, her transition into three-dimensional work stems from an interest in translating surface-based thinking into volume, structure, and presence. Sculpture allows the image to move beyond the picture plane and become an object encountered physically in space. The teddy bear appears as a simplified, culturally familiar form that enables this exploration while remaining open and non-illustrative. Although the materials themselves are rigid and constructed from mixed media, the figure evokes associations of comfort and familiarity through form rather than touch. This contrast — between a visually approachable figure and a materially solid object — is central to the work, preventing sentimentality while maintaining emotional accessibility. Rather than functioning as a character or symbol, the teddy bear operates as an interface through which memory, openness, and restraint coexist within a contemporary sculptural language. A central intention of Emilia Switala’s work is to reconnect the viewer with a sense of inner freedom associated with childhood experience. The sculptures are conceived as uplifting objects, inviting contact with the inner child understood not as nostalgia, but as a state of openness, curiosity, and unburdened perception. Through recognizable form without fixed narrative, the works allow personal associations to surface gently, recalling moments of play, joy, and emotional ease from early life. Each sculpture is created as a one-of-a-kind object and develops intuitively through material engagement. Titles originate from fragments of early language and invented words, preserved for their sound and emotional resonance rather than literal meaning. Language here functions analogously to form — as an evocative element that resists explanation and keeps the work perceptually open. Emilia Switala’s teddy bear sculptures offer a shared experiential space — a brief suspension of everyday weight. By combining familiar imagery with materially assertive construction, the works invite viewers to reconnect with lightness, joy, and the capacity for emotional openness without denying complexity.