Dates: 5 – 29 June 2025, Location: Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

Drawn from the Polish Highland tradition of whittling – carving small slices into wood, originating from shepherds carving intricate patterns during prolonged periods of waiting with their sheep – the project reimagines this ornamental practice as a visual record of passing time.

Not everyone gets to wait equally. At the heart of the exhibition sits a wooden surface, with twelve panels portraying records of various experiences of waiting. These evoke the slow toil and toll of bureaucratic delays, the quiet tension of social crises, the practiced patience of a taxi driver or a night watchman, and the mind-numbing repetition of daily traffic. Shaped by the hands of artisans and school students, each segment of the installation uses detailed ornamental patterns to reflect the duration and intensity of these scenarios, creating an ornamental landscape to representing/ evoking our waiting society.

By combining research on the social dimensions of waiting with the aesthetic language of ornamentation, the exhibition uncovers how temporal experiences not only reflect our place in society, but also shape it. Woodcarving, reinterpreted as a record of waiting, reveals the hidden temporal rhythms of a world that moves rapidly yet at an unequal pace.

Woodcarvers: Józef Bukowski, Anna Bukowska, Wojciech Bachleda-Dorcarz, Magdalena Bilczewska-Wiśniewska, Jan Kassowski, Michał Kassowski, Szymon Kassowski, Stanisław Kośmiński, Wojciech Łacek, Andrzej Mrowca, Marcin Rząsa, Franciszek Rząsa, Students of Antoni Kenar State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Zakopane, Students of Dr Władysław Matlakowski Construction School in Zakopane.

Photos in this article by Kuba Celej Ian

Administering Body: Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Curatorial and Research Team: Jakub Gawkowski, Monika Rosińska, Maciej Siuda

Design: Maciej Siuda Pracownia

Graphic Design: Noviki

London Design Biennale 5th edition

For more info and tickets HERE