{"id":88,"count":24,"description":"When the street lights go out it gets eery and cold. When a bridge can no longer close, half the city is jammed within an hour. If the trash cans are not emptied, the neighborhood turns into a dump.\r\n\r\nMany of the people doing this work fall under Stadswerken, the maintenance department of the City of Amsterdam. City Works keeps the city clean, cares for greenery, maintains roads, bridges and locks.\r\n\r\nThese people I wanted to pay tribute to. I wanted to get to know them myself first, and then introduce them to the rest of the city. By capturing them in oil on canvas.\r\n\r\nThe management and staff of City Works embraced this idea, giving me the opportunity to portray twenty-four of their \"Hidden Heroes,\" and so creating a gallery of honor representing the entire group.\r\n\r\nFor each portrait I first went out onto the streets with them, into the parks and the neighborhoods and to see what they do and how. They told me about their work, about their city and about their lives. Then I invited them back to my place of work - the studio. In the space of three mornings I painted their portrait from life (ie without using photographs).\r\n\r\nMy work is about seeing and being seen. About how important it is that we really see each other. A painting helps, because you have to look a little longer. A painting is not like a photograph because in a painting there is time. That time is pure attention, and that attention matters.\r\n\r\nThe collection of twenty-four portraits aims to represent much more than just those twenty-four people. The gallery of honor of hidden heroes shows and honors all the people of City Works Amsterdam who quietly and in the background keep the city running. People who are important, to all of us.\r\n\r\nThe series was exhibited in its entirety at the Stopera in March and April 2023, and the works have since been given a permanent home in the entrance halls of City Works' six work yards.","link":"https:\/\/depieterproducties.nl\/en\/product-categorie\/series-en\/city-works\/","name":"City Works","slug":"city-works","taxonomy":"product_cat","parent":84,"meta":[],"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depieterproducties.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depieterproducties.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depieterproducties.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/product_cat"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depieterproducties.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat\/84"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/depieterproducties.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?product_cat=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}