{"id":935,"date":"2018-04-06T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/?p=935"},"modified":"2021-09-12T00:24:15","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T00:24:15","slug":"passion-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/?p=935","title":{"rendered":"Passion project

LOVE THY LABOUR<\/em> by Kay Abude<\/h3>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kay Abude\u2019s LOVE THY LABOUR<\/em> explores conceptions and conditions of work. The ongoing project stems from the experiences of the artist and her family. Relocating to Australia from the Philippines in 1986, Abude\u2019s parents moved from white to blue collar jobs. Her mother worked in an electrical factory, supplementing her income by bringing components home that were assembled by members of the family. The artist notes, \u2018Working was a way we spent time together and socialised. It\u2019s how I developed fine motor skills at an early age and it sparked my interest in the factory and systems of production.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the current iteration, Abude invites service staff at the 2018 Auckland Art Fair to don aprons, pinafores, and coats screen-printed with the eponymous exhortation \u2018love thy labour\u2019. Reminiscent of the halftone images of Andy Warhol, as well as newspaper headlines and protest placards, Abude\u2019s garments allude to the artistry of factory and service workers alike. The artist signals her solidarity with such labourers by participating in the making of the clothing and by working at the Fair as a guide\u2014an outwardly unglamorous role that remains vital to visitors\u2019 enjoyment of the event, and especially the Projects programme of which her work is a part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Abude invites us to reflect on our own work. How many of us living in the Western world in 2018 conceive of our work, which might be largely unphysical, as \u2018labour\u2019? How many of us prefer to think of our job as a vocation, a calling, regardless of the drudgery it might entail? In the context of the Fair, LOVE THY LABOUR<\/em> cannot help but draw attention the fact that art-making today is often treated as a \u2018labour of love\u2019, being poorly paid and risky, so much so that the majority of Australasian artists are employed day-to-day as educators, gallery assistants, or service people\u2014living for their art, not by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abude\u2019s project is not, however, wholly or predominantly cynical. While \u2018love thy labour\u2019 might sound a bit like the mantra of some totalitarian regime, the expression also has a biblical connotation (\u2018labour\u2019, after all, rhymes with \u2018neighbour\u2019); it suggests a higher purpose. Abude reminds us that despite the dissolution of unions, the outsourcing of production to poorer countries, the rise of unpaid internships, and ever present demands on the artist to stump up the funds for work that might never turn a profit, many of us not only do what delights us, but would also feel quite lost without our daily grind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text written to accompany the project LOVE THY LABOUR<\/em><\/a>, part of Projects 2018<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Projects 2018<\/em><\/strong>
Curated by Gabriela Salgado and Francis McWhannell<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23 to 27 May 2018
Auckland Art Fair
The Cloud
T\u0101maki Makaurau Auckland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kay Abude\u2019s LOVE THY LABOUR explores conceptions and conditions of work. The ongoing project stems from the experiences of the artist and her family. Relocating to Australia from the Philippines in 1986, Abude\u2019s parents moved from white to blue collar jobs. Her mother worked in an electrical factory, supplementing her income by bringing components home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-kay-abude"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}