The Phantom Series began as an exploration of identity, disappearance, memory, and the unstable image of the self. Over time, these works have started to move beyond the flat image and into space.
The new Phantom glass installation translates the drawings into suspended colour, light, transparency, and reflection
— not as literal copies, but as fragments of the same emotional world.
Phantom Glass Installation
Phantom Series
is a collection that explores the ephemeral and elusive aspects of identity, presence, and memory.
These works are made of abstract, ghostly forms — shapes that seem to appear and disappear at the same time. They hover somewhere between visibility and obscurity, between something being present and something already fading away.
For me, this series is about the fragile nature of existence. It is about those fleeting moments that stay with us, even when we cannot name them properly. A feeling, a memory, a version of ourselves, a presence — something that was there, or maybe only felt like it was there.
I use a vibrant and translucent palette of red, pink, yellow, blue, and green, with layered textures and subtle shifts in tone. The colours may feel playful at first, but there is also something haunting underneath them. The figures and forms in the Phantom Series are never fully formed. They are emerging, dissolving, changing — almost like memories trying to become visible.
Through this body of work, I am interested in the space between what is seen and what is felt. I think of identity as something fluid, unstable, and always moving. Nothing stays completely fixed. We change, we disappear from ourselves, and sometimes we return in different forms.
Self-portrait Phantom at PhotoVogue
My work keeps coming back to this feeling of a fragmented self — of being in between things, between who I was, who I am, and who I am becoming. In these images, I am drawn to that suspended state where a person feels present and absent at the same time, clear for a second and then lost again. I use light, shadow, texture, and layered forms to disturb the image slightly, so it is never fully stable. For me, identity is not something fixed. It keeps moving. It shifts with memory, with emotion, with time, and sometimes with the parts of ourselves we try to hide or forget. The “phantom” is that part of the self that is still there, even when it feels out of reach. It is the way we can haunt our own lives — through old versions of ourselves, unfinished feelings, and moments we carry even when we think they are gone.
SKETCH NO5 // PHANTOM LADYBIRD
SKETCH NO9 // POSSESSION COSMO
In the self-portrait works from the Phantom Series, I wanted the image to feel slightly surreal, almost like a dream or a memory that has already started to fade. I use shadow, reflection, and surface to create a sense of distance — as if the figure is there, but also not fully reachable. These images are about the elusive nature of identity. We project versions of ourselves into the world, but sometimes those versions feel disconnected from what is really happening inside. The reflection, the fog-like light, and the softness of the image all speak to that haziness — the way memory, perception, and self-awareness can blur. In another image, the figure appears caught in motion or distortion. The body is present, but it is not completely fixed. It seems to dissolve into the surrounding space, as if the self is becoming part of the atmosphere around it. I am interested in those in-between spaces — between reality and dream, between the body and the image, between what is real and what is imagined. The blur and shadow are not just visual effects for me. They reflect the way identity can shift, soften, disappear, and return in another form.
In some of the self-portraits, I was drawn to futuristic aesthetics, monumental 1960s forms, and the strange simplicity of cartoon-like shapes — bold, clean, almost playful, but with something unsettling underneath.
SKETCH NO5 // PHANTOM LADYBIRD
I was drawn to something delicate, small, and almost easy to miss. The ladybird makes me think of fragility, nature, and childhood in a way — something beautiful, but also temporary. By placing it next to the word “phantom,” it becomes less literal and more like a memory or a small presence that is already disappearing.
For me, this sketch is about the quiet things that stay with us. The small signs, the small creatures, the small moments that may seem unimportant, but somehow become part of our inner world. It is about beauty becoming ghostly, and about how something so small can still carry emotional weight.
SKETCH NO9 // POSSESSION COSMO
I was thinking about control, attachment, and the feeling of being caught between something deeply personal and something much bigger than yourself. “Possession” can mean holding onto something, or being held by something. “Cosmo” opens it out into a wider, almost universal space.
For me, this sketch sits somewhere between the intimate and the infinite. It is about the need to control, the fear of losing form, and the strange feeling of being part of something much larger than your own body or your own thoughts. It carries that same Phantom feeling — something dissolving, something expanding, something not fully belonging to one place.
Some of the works in the Phantom Series also carry echoes of cartoon-like simplicity, pop abstraction, and space-age design. I was drawn to bold colour, thick shapes, clean lines, and forms that feel almost too simple at first — almost playful, almost innocent. There is something interesting for me in that contrast. The colours and shapes can feel bright, sweet, or even childlike, but underneath them there is something more unsettling. They sit beside the ghostly, fragmented nature of the photographic works, creating a tension between playfulness and disappearance.
In some of the self-portraits, my face becomes almost like a symbol or a sculpture — still, frontal, strange, and slightly unreal. I like the idea of it becoming less of a portrait and more of a form: something between a person, a mask, a memory, and an object. The references are not literal. They are filtered through my own language of disappearance, selfhood, emotional distortion, and the feeling of being both present and absent at the same time.
© 2026 Wojciech J. Walkowicz. All rights reserved.
Wojciech J. Walkowicz is the trading name of Wojciech Janusz Walkowicz