The installation Breaking Mercury consists of latex tubes, wooden pipes bought at a flea market, ceramic elements, all woven into a tangled web. The inspiration for its creation came from historical medical machinery and devices used in industrial animal husbandry, such as milking machines. The archaic pipes made of exotic wood serve as a symbol of colonialism for the artist, while the ceramic elements evoke associations with the organic underwater world. The title refers to a material that is both the only naturally occurring liquid metal and an extremely toxic substance. In antiquity, mercury was a plaything of the wealthy, known as ‘quicksilver’. In many languages, its name is associated with Mercury, the Roman god of commerce. Wysocka metaphorically alludes to the pipelines that encircle the earth and the systems of resource extraction. The project critiques individualism in the context of the hydro-community of interspecies coexistence. The artist is interested in the flows and relationships between different water bodies – both human and non-human – filled with bodily fluids, blood, milk, glands and plant sap that different beings exchange with each other. This exchange can take place through symbiosis, care and nurturing, but it is also often marked by speciesist and chauvinist violence.
The installacion was exhibited at the Mammals and Suckers exhibition with works of Ida Karkoszka at Hos Gallery in Warsaw in 2025 curated by Michalina Sablik.