Alicja Brodowicz

Learning to Swim | My little one is learning to swim*  and yet there is something left: gills, fins. she is aquatic and terrestrial, still a thermophile, enmeshed in intestines. almost a fish, a bit a turtle, a bit a root. she may get hooked and stick to the ground, she may move into the belly and live among algae. with the umbilical cord around her wrists. the little one hopes that her desire to be with water is temporary, and later everything will get back to normal: the sky, the ground, four walls, ninety degrees in between. a window, a tree behind it, a window-sill, a table, a bed. the little one believes that the webbing between her fingers can be bitten, and that the teeth will do. * poem by ewa świąc.

The series entitled “Learning to Swim” explores the mother and daughter relationship; it is about the physical and the emotional distance that increases as the child grows and gains independence. It is about the feeling of immense pride and also great pain. It is a story about “the challenges of feeling in between—youth and adulthood, the nest and the world, the comfortable water and the firm earth that we all must learn to walk on, someday.” alicjabrodowicz.com