Outrageous, subversive, often nude … Ewa Partum’s art arrives in Hong Kong
Ewa Partum kissed strangers, aged herself on stage, and scattered propaganda letters across Poland. Now, her first Asia show is in Sheung Wan
Ewa Partum would have you believe that she’s a stupid woman, or at least guilty of what 1980s Polish society deemed frivolous female behaviour. Dressed in nothing but high heels, red lipstick and a string of light bulbs, the artist would enact the trope of a silly drunken woman in front of a scandalised audience in 1981 – running around and dancing, flirting with men, giggling, pretending to stumble and fall.
An image from this performance was captured and set in a light box. It’s currently in the window of Double Q Gallery, in Sheung Wan, giving Hongkongers a taste of the artist’s pioneering practice for the exhibition “Ewa Partum: Conceptual Feminism”.
“I even convinced one of them to kiss me,” Partum, now 80, recalls at the opening of her Hong Kong show. “At that point I don’t think the audience could tell if it was a performance or real life.”
Partum’s artistic interventions in everyday life shaped her conceptual art practice. Interrogating gender norms and challenging patriarchal structures have always underpinned her work.
Part provocateur, part activist, but wholly artist and feminist, Partum has spent decades testing limits and confronting authority. “When I was in kindergarten, I convinced the other kids to rebel against the teacher,” she says. “If someone tells me to do something, I will do the exact opposite. It’s been like that from the beginning.”
This defiance persisted throughout college. Partum remembers that during her years as an art student at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1965-70), they were instructed to do exactly as the professor did. “We were even encouraged to copy them,” she says, “so, naturally, I wanted to do the opposite.”
Subversive, spirited and sharp, Partum has a commanding presence, accentuated by a short blonde bob and her signature red lipstick. Lipstick is another emblematic motif in her work, as seen in pieces such as My Touch is a Touch of a Woman (1971), part of her “Poems by Ewa” series, some of which are on view at the show.