Hiwa K

The photograph is a double portrait of the artist Hiwa K and of Aleksandra Olszewska, who for many years volunteered to sweep the surroundings of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970 in Solidarity Square in Gdańsk. Although she ran a souvenir kiosk at the entrance to the shipyard, she was mainly dedicated to this invisible, informal labour. Having learnt about Olszewska’s history, the artist balanced her battered sweeping brush on his nose and put his arm around the woman. This gesture evokes additional associations with the artist’s early work, Cooking with Mama (2005) that revealed to the world the many years of domestic labour performed by the artist's mother. Hiwa K notices that which is hidden, discreet, overlooked, unremarkable, and vernacular. Moving the underestimated, invisible labour of an elderly woman from a horizontal to a vertical position suddenly makes her activity stand out. The gesture ‘verticalizes’ the horizontal, modest, informal and humble, to the massive form of a soaring monument.

• Object type:
  colour photograph (lambda, dibond)
• Year:
  2010
• Dimensions:
  150 × 100 cm
• inv. no.:
  MNG/NOMUS/53/D
• Własność:
  Private deposit in the collection of the National Museum in Gdańsk (NOMUS / New Art Museum)