Atlas – brooch/pendant

This is my second work made for the exhibition at the Yes Gallery entitled “Women’s Voice”. It is to start on April 9, 2021 (Poznań, Poland). Its idea is to present a woman’s point of view – including the recent political and social developments in Poland, but also any other feminist topics that women would like to raise. The subject of this exhibition is very close to me – I have always considered myself and will consider myself a feminist because I am proud to be a woman.

I made a series of 3 works for the exhibition, each of them touches a slightly different topic.

This work shows a woman with a city on her head. She is like the mythical Atlas that carries the whole world on his shoulders. Women very often have the role of a person who has to look after everything, think about the good of everyone else around, supervise whether there is food, cleaning products at home, and whether everyone will be able to complete their tasks on time. In addition to her “usual” work, her mind must constantly analyze, plan and predict consequences not only for herself, but for every person important to her, during every minute of her day. Our society is structured in such a way that women are simply required to be the manager of the entire family. Feminists define this phenomenon as “the mental load”, i.e. the constant obligation to remember everything: that someone needs new shoes, that toilet paper is running out, that someone should take a pill at a certain time, that the color-clothes need to be washed, but the washing powder for colours has run out and needs to be bought, etc. It is a continuous work, never ending and extremely burning out. At the same time, men do not feel responsible for it until they are instructed by a woman – the house manager. This burden of constant supervision and taking care of everything and everyone around is practically unnoticeable from the outside, and the work performed is usually “Sisyphean”. In my brooch, this weight and pain is symbolized by the golden thorn which ends the woman’s bust. On her head rises a silver city with silver and rock crystal skyscrapers.

Silver 925, gilded silver, rock crystal

Dimensions: 7.5 cm x 4 cm

Weight: 24.4 g