The Howl of St. Christopher
Work was created from a piece of wood found on the seashore in Gdańsk in 2021, shortly after my forced emigration from Belarus. The waves and the “work” of beavers had given it the shape of a human head. I placed on it a cap with the word “Belarus,” which I wore at the time. In this way, a kind of portrait of an emigrant cast ashore came into being.
An important reference for this work is the legend of Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. According to tradition, he carried wanderers across a river until one day, the child he had taken into his arms revealed himself as Christ bearing the burdens of the world. In the Orthodox tradition, Christopher was sometimes depicted with the head of a dog, some saw in this the trace of his pagan past, others an allusion to a foreign, “barking” language.
Like Christopher, the emigrant bears a burden and speaks in a language that sounds foreign and evokes fear. The muzzle in this work refers both to this image and to the very impossibility of communication. Only the howl remains—a lamenting song of the “other,” which not everyone is able to listen to.
30 х 20 cm
Tree, muzzle, cap.
Photo credits: Macieja Zaniewskiego