Housework, farm work and compulsory work in institutions are just some of the subjects explored in the exhibition Labour of Love: Economies of Care in Contemporary Art at the Glucksman Gallery at University College Cork.
“The care economy is something we wanted to look at in the context of the university and contemporary art trends,” says Fiona Kearney, the director of the Glucksman, who curated the show with her colleague Katie O’Grady. “It’s the kind of work that is often unpaid, or pays badly, and relates primarily to female labour in the home. This is something that the UN is looking at, and something that our colleagues here in the university, as economists and social scientists, are looking at because it has a huge relevance to all of us in society.”
As Kearney points out, it is often the case that artists who are mothers struggle to find the time and space to make work. “This has emerged as quite a significant discussion within contemporary art practice. They have to balance their participation in residencies, for instance, with their responsibilities as parents.
“When we were preparing the show, however, we knew we didn’t want to really focus on the subject through a feminist lens, we wanted to do a show that would be as inclusive as possible, while keeping the focus on unpaid or low paid work, and specifically on that idea of the carer. After all, both genders are bound by different stereotypes of work practices. A man might be doing low paid labour on a building site, for instance, when he might love to be at home caring for his children. There’s certain things that society expects you to be.”
Labour of Love is inclusive not just in terms of gender, but also in its international breadth. Of the twelve artists participating, four are Irish, four are European, two are British, one is Australian, and one is South American.
“We’re an island nation,” says Kearney, “and it’s important to make international connections. Otherwise the wider world mightn’t pay attention. Two of the artists, Jamie Martinez and Caroline Walker, are represented by galleries in New York, for instance, and those gallerists are now looking at our artists’ work and sharing details of our exhibition and our website within their networks. You’d hope that might lead to more opportunities for the other artists in the show.”
Labour of Love opens with the Danish artist Liesel Burisch’s series of 15 one-minute videos, Minutes of Silence. “Liesel is a relatively early career artist who wouldn’t have shown in Ireland before,” says Kearney. “It’s not just in Ireland, but all over the world, that people are aware of taking a moment of silence, to pause and reflect. Liesel has filmed these fairly random groups, including animals. It’s a gentle work, and quite comic, but also, I hope, it invites the visitor to take a moment to ask, can we enter into this exhibition with that sense of dignity that we feel should be afforded to the people that are represented in it?”
Work in the home is explored by the Scottish artist Caroline Walker in a series of paintings and lithographs. “This is Caroline’s first time showing in Ireland. It’s a real privilege for us; she’s got a big show that’s just opened at the Hepworth in Wakefield, and I suspect she’s going to be a global superstar. A lot of her work that we specifically requested for this show was of her mother, who helps care for her child. One painting shows her mother checking a bottle of milk, while another shows her cleaning the toilet. It’s a beautiful acknowledgement of the importance and value of that kind of labour.”
The subject of forced labour is touched on in Amelia Stein’s photograph, Laundry, which depicts a stack of freshly folded white linen. “Amelia’s work honours the women in the Magdalene Laundries,” says Kearney. “We’ve shown the work along with a piece of 19th century Limerick lace on loan from Cork Public Museum. Lace making was women’s work. It brought in an income and helped families survive when no other work might have been available. It’s a history that isn’t celebrated very much. We don’t acknowledge the economic power that women were given in that moment because it was ripped away from them again by the time the Irish state was established.”
The most prominent work in the exhibition, and certainly the one most popular with children, is Laura Fitzgerald’s Rural Stress (Landini); a large tractor constructed of welded steel, accompanied by a selection of drawings of rural tasks and activities. “I really must give kudos to my colleague Katie O’Grady here,” says Kearney. “We had a long chat about how we could include the rural in the show. In Ireland, as you know, so much labour around the farm happens in a family context. Farm work is never ending. Everyone gets pulled into it, and it is often very thankless.
“Katie approached Laura and asked her to participate. Laura is fabulous. She’s a super artist who’s making really funny work. I mean, her drawings are so observational, and again, they’re made with Sharpie pens on paper. And her tractor has turned out to be the sleeper hit of the show.”
There will be another mix of Irish and international artists in Rinn, the next show at the Glucksman, which will be curated by the Japanese gallerist Wahei Aoyama and the West Cork designer Joseph Walsh. Rinn tours to the Glucksman at the end of July, having premiered in Tokyo in April as part of the Ireland Japan 2025 programme.
“We’re the only Irish venue the exhibition will run in,” says Kearney. “The project has grown organically out of the Making In symposium Joseph hosts every year in his studio in Riverstick. O’Donnell and Tuomey Architects, who designed the Glucksman, have partnered in those. They were out in Japan when Rinn opened there, and they’ll be part of the exhibition here as well. We’ll be celebrating 21 years since the Glucksman first opened in October, so it’s a nice homecoming for them.”
- Labour of Love: Economies of Care in Contemporary Art runs at the Glucksman until July 6. Rinn opens on July 26.
- Women’s Work, a documentary film on the artist Caroline Walker, screens at the Kane Building, UCC at 2pm July 5.
- Further information: glucksman.org
