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Cover Image: Hiwa K, Pre-Image (Blind as the Mother Tongue), 2017 (still). Single-channel HD video, sound, color; 18 min. Courtesy the artist; KOW, Berlin; and Prometeogallery di Isa Pisani, Milan/Lucca
Exhibition
Hiwa K: Blind as the Mother Tongue
2 May 2018 – 19 Aug 2018
Regular hours
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 21:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Saturday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Sunday
- 11:00 – 18:00
- Tuesday
- 11:00 – 18:00
Address
- 235 Bowery
- New York
New York - NY 10002
- United States
Travel Information
- From the East Side of Manhattan Take the downtown 6 train to Spring Street. Exit the station and walk one block north on Lafayette Street to Prince Street. Turn right and proceed until Prince Street ends four blocks later at Bowery. From the West Side of Manhattan Take the downtown N or R train to Prince Street. Exit the station and proceed east on Prince Street for six blocks to Bowery. You may also take the downtown D or F train to Broadway/ Lafayette. Walk three blocks east to Bowery and turn right two blocks to Prince Street. From Brooklyn Take the Manhattan-bound F train to 2nd Avenue. Exit at Houston Street and walk one block west to Bowery. Turn left, and proceed two blocks south to Prince Street. From Queens Take the Manhattan-bound F train to 2nd Avenue. Exit at Houston Street and walk one block west to Bowery. Turn left, and proceed two blocks south to Prince Street.
Drawing on vernacular forms and collaborative and performative actions, Iraqi-Kurdish artist Hiwa K makes work inspired by political events, chance encounters, oral histories, and his own experiences, including fleeing Iraq on foot in the late 1990s.
About
Hiwa K approaches his subjects with curiosity, pragmatism, and spontaneity, and his videos, performances, and objects speak to themes of political memory and belonging—as well as what the artist refers to as “placelessness” and “zones of possibility.” Hiwa K often distances himself from the standard position of the artist, instead appearing in his works as an interviewer, guide, bandleader, or political organizer; many of his artistic projects take shape through self-education, informal collaborations, and exploratory trials.
“Blind as the Mother Tongue,” his first solo exhibition in the US, gathers a selection of works that address experiences of estrangement and alternative modes of seeing, learning, and remembering. The exhibition will include the artist’s recent video Pre-Image (Blind as the Mother Tongue) (2017), which debuted at documenta 14 in Athens and presents a powerful allegory for the experience of exile. The exhibition also includes several video works that take up the political histories and trauma specific to Sulaymaniyah, the artist’s hometown in Kurdish Iraq. For his New Museum exhibition, Hiwa K will debut a new sculpture that gives shape to his recent inquiries into early colonial encounters between the Inca and Spanish Empires, and reflects on misperception and misinterpretation in the circulation of culture.
The exhibition is curated by Natalie Bell, Associate Curator.
