Chleb, hlep, help

This work is based on a single word “chleb” written in three different ways. First in its correct standard spelling. Then phonetically as “hlep”. And finally in a simplified form without the first letter and without the characteristic “belly” of the letter “p” which leads to the word “help”. At this point “chleb” begins to sound like a cry for help. From food to voice.

Here “chleb” functions as a sign of something absolutely basic need care survival. But it also marks the moment when its absence sets language in motion. The shift from “chleb” to “help” can be read as a process a moment in which the lack of a real bodily foundation of life turns into a call. From thing to sound. From eating to shouting. The intermediate form “hlep” is like a language in crisis not fully correct unstable as if it were breaking down under the pressure of violence.

The embroidery was made with black thread on a bright pink fabric. This strong contrast refers to the aesthetics and symbolism of anarchist feminist movements. The language of protest meets soft textile matter which reinforces the political dimension of the work.

The phonetic closeness of the words “chleb” and “help” shows that the call for help does not come from outside but grows directly out of the experience of hunger. The shift from Polish to English opens this experience to a broader universal context. “Help” functions like an alarm understood across borders. A minimal shift in the spelling of a single word reveals the tension between the everyday act of feeding and a history in which bread stops meaning life and begins to mean its absence.