FEIERTAG (a public holiday in Germany) continues Richard Hancock’s ongoing exploration of the politics and aesthetics of labour, social class and the body. Drawing on family histories, art-world labour practices, and the artist’s immediate surroundings in Berlin, FEIERTAG brings together three distinct series: The Handled & the Laboured (2022), What is Hidden, Remains (2023), and Feiertag (Pentecost) (2023). Each of these photographic works pose complex questions around labour, visibility and desire.

The Handled & the Laboured presents isolated glances at the bodies of three members of the same working class family -- the artist, his mother, and his ex-partner. The images both play with and refute stereotypes of class, gender, and objectification. What is Hidden, Remains builds on the imagery of The Handled & the Laboured, delving deeper into the obfuscation of desire, and the hidden nature of labouring bodies. Feiertag (Pentecost) is a series of four photographs taken during the Pentecost holiday in Berlin. The images document the absent labour of an empty construction site on a sweltering public holiday, and refer back to the working life of the artist's absent father who died in 2012.