Press Release:
The exhibition explores the concept of ‘work’ in an expanded sense of the word, and how the concept structures much of contemporary experience and identity.
The exhibition installation consists of a theatrical environment inhabited by three costumed and masked ‘characters’ – each representing a different kind of ‘work’; Nesting (whose mask is a bird box) represents ‘emotional labour’, Watering (whose mask is a watering can) represents vocational labour, and Picturing (whose mask is an enlarged pinhole camera) embodies the labour involved in cultivating self-image today.
A short script has been written for each of the three ‘characters’, exploring the psychological and emotional effects of undertaking these different kinds of work they each embody. A recording of the scripts is spoken aloud over a hidden speaker in the exhibition space, which is synchronised with three spotlights that illuminate each of the sculptures in turn as their part of the script is read. This repeats as a constant cycle in the exhibition space, unfolding the effects of the ubiquity of work as a social concept on wellbeing and the psychological makeup of the individual today.
In addition, several props-like found objects – including a dead tree, a rake, and the roots of dead plants and wall painted elements – which also feature in the exhibition’s script – form the mise-en-scene of the installation.