On Labour: Four Live Works

ABOUT THE EVENT

On Labour: Four Live Works is a program of live performance informed by the practices and lived experiences of four contemporary artists, including Grace Connors, Barbara Hostalek, Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa and Sarah Rodigari—each working at the intersection of visual art, performance and the written word.  

On Labour considers the notion of ‘labour’ as both a creative and economic activity—as well as the tensions that exist between these two understandings of the term. The title gestures towards multiple registers of work: paid and unpaid, visible and invisible, physical and emotional. Presented in a historical moment defined by economic uncertainty and precarity, On Labour confronts the uneven economies that shape creative practice, including the exhaustion and precarity of freelance life, the politics of care, and both the intellectual and physical demands of performing the self. 

Together, the artists’ practices variously trace the entanglements of labour and identity. Through performance— encompassing movement, poetry, pathos and humour—they raise questions including whose labour counts, under what conditions, and what constitutes ‘work’? Unfolding one after another, the performances in On Labour collectively consider how art might reconfigure our relationships to time, labour and one another; and ask how, in moments of exhaustion and uncertainty, performance can offer not only critique, but solidarity and hope. 

On Labour unfolds throughout the PICA building over three nights, during a period between exhibition changeovers. This interstitial occupation of the space reimagines the gallery as a non-traditional performance venue. A reflection of the often-scarce availability of performance spaces for artists, On Labour transforms constraint into a generative condition, reflecting the adaptability and resourcefulness demanded of artists today.