Helena Parys’s works – despite their aesthetic coherence – defy clear categorization. The title of the exhibition itself, which is supposed to lead the viewer to a specific trail, when translated does not seem to make the situation easier. Coming from English, dummy has not one, but a whole range of meanings; aware of this fact, the artist allows us to look at her works through the prism of such concepts as fool, mannequin, dummy or deception.

Confusion about which party experiences the above deception is right. The dummy can be both me – the viewer who brings his own beliefs to the painting – and the figure of the artist, placed in her own paintings. The role of a self-portrait, which is an inherent element of each of the presented works, is not to take over all the lights and direct them at yourself. More than the essence, it appears as a link between the presented world and the recipient. The female figure facing us seems to be saying: everything you see is contained in one person. When we make eye contact again, he adds, I’m here, but I’m looking at you; isn’t it like we’re both here?

We have to decide for ourselves what it is here and where it is. The artist provides us with many clues for this purpose: starting from the realistic style of the paintings, ending with the symbolism woven into the scenes – free and unobtrusive, acting more intuitively than literally. So we have not only tools, but also freedom (both in interpretation and in locating the world on any of the maps available to us).

The places we see are existing and discovered, we should not assume that we are the first to visit them. Yet we are not intruders there. Removing someone else’s nails by a naked woman is expressed as consent to share the world and fate with her. It doesn’t matter how you feel about it. You just need to be here.

Parys’s paintings speak, start a dialogue and from time to time decide to express their opinions. The figurative language they use lets us know that – despite everything – we are still at home. We guess what the objects and people inside the painting feel; we know the cold that pierces our feet, we know how warm our hair can wrap us. So it is worth asking ourselves whether the presented world ever took place outside of us? It is equally important to leave this question open.

In her works, the artist often decides to use 3D objects – both as a complement to the image and as an independent exhibit. The result is a progressive blurring of the line between speculation and what is real and well-known. The game with the concept of fiction effectively imitates the feeling that occurs during sleep, when the states experienced do not go hand in hand with the guarantee that they were caused by something real. However, in the case of Parys, the recurring question is what really is? it does not disappear with awakening – instead, it functions as an inherent and constantly living element of her works, questioning every newly established boundary between fiction and truth.