semiotics of houseworkwork film performance 12 mins
A woman in her fifties delivers a deadpan performance to camera as she offloads, to a disembodied and demanding hand, the paraphernalia associated with the unending chores of domestic life. An homage to Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen 1975
unremarkableperformancecycle
A simple sound piece involved recording both of our washing machines and playing back the recordings simultaneously, invoking a different kind of domestic conversation. The idea for this came out of an interview, where the venue had been moved from a studio meet up to Nick’s kitchen. We were talking about making domestic work with the conversation interrupted by the cycle of the washing machine in the background. We both often use our kitchens as studio spaces with the washing machine noise as an accompaniment to making. This piece evolved from laughing together but speaks of wider issues of how and where we are able to make artwork.
Massive Tool
A tool belt made from all the bits and pieces of domestic detritus, a dig at the masculine stereotype of the man of action with his tools to hand. In our hastily assembled version, the incongruous mixture of ‘quotidianfounddatum’ included string, a lightbulb, children’s bicycle stabilisers and a meat thermometer amongst other miscellaneous objects. This awkward and unhandy tool belt makes it impossible to walk properly or do any activity without difficulty, many of the objects dragging along the ground.
Massive Tool performance
A performance of Massive Tool in Stroud High Street embodied the difficulty of the simple act of getting out of the front door with the invisible mental load of tasks and duties and the unseen threads and attachments. The performance made the load both seen and heard – the loud clanging of the objects drew lots of attention. As one onlooker remarked: “not a cow, not a wedding, just the sound of the patriarchy…”.
Photography by Hatty Frances Bell Stephen Lenthall at Article Studio Anna Cady and (both laughing) Collaborative