Hiwa K
Hiwa K: Eyes See Far, Hands Too Short to Reach
Van Every / Smith Galleries
On View: January 14, 2019— March 01, 2019
Opening Reception: January 31, 2019, 7:00 pm— 8:30 pm
Related Programs & Events
Hiwa K: Cooking with Mama performance
January 29, 2019, 11:00 am—1:00 pm
In conjunction with his exhibition, Hiwa K, will cook karnıyarık, a Middle Eastern dish, with students in the latest version of his project, Cooking with Mama. The dish was selected by Huseyin Altinisik ’20 along with his mother and sister, who will join Huseyin and Hiwa K to cook this dish from their home in Turkey via Skype. We invite you to join us and share in this meal. The performance will take place in Vail Commons at Davidson College and includes lunch ($10.15).
Hiwa K: Artist Talk
January 31, 2019, 6:00 pm—7:00 pm
Hiwa K: Opening Reception
January 31, 2019, 7:00 pm—8:30 pm
The Van Every/Smith Galleries will present videos, performances, and installations from the last decade by Hiwa K. Born in 1975 in Sulaymaniyan, Kurdistan, Iraq, Hiwa K creates sculptures, videos, and performances that are often more about the process than the product. Weaving together oral history, anecdotes, political events, and personal memories – including the artist’s journey on foot from Iraq to Germany, seeking asylum – Hiwa K’s participatory, collaborative works explore migration, colonialism, war, protest, violence, and identity. Using video to document his actions and interactions, he illuminates otherness and the in-between through his occupation of diverse roles, such as artist, musician, interviewer, instigator, and infiltrator. He plays a harmonica while walking through a crowded protest, dances within the walls of an abandoned prison, melts down old weapons to cast an ornate bell, and cooks a communal meal with his mother via Skype, in an effort to shift our perspective both literally and symbolically between the sky and the ground, the individual and the collective, place and placelessness, belonging and alienation, East and West, terror and beauty.
Hiwa K has had major exhibitions at S.M.A.K. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent; New Museum, New York, Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Venice Biennale; La Triennale, Paris; Serpentine Gallery, London; and Manifesta 7, Bolzano. He is the recipient of prestigious awards including the Arnold Bode Prize; Schering Stiftung Art Award; Kunstfonds Grant; and Goethe Institut Grant. Hiwa K lives and works in Berlin.
This exhibition would not have been possible without the support of the Herb Jackson and Laura Grosch Gallery Endowment; Davidson College Justice, Equality and Community Grant; Friends of the Arts; and Malu Alvarez ’02.
Click here to watch Cooking with Mama performance.
Click here to listen to Hiwa K’s artist talk.
View the exhibition catalog below.
