Labor In Vain

hand-embroidered pillows, puff paint, sequins, found objects, carpeting
2016
Disclaimer Gallery
Brooklyn, NY

Labor-In-Vain, is the setting for a series of embroidered pillows featuring women body builders. A brass hope chest, traditionally used to store domestic objects fabricated by women in anticipation of marriage, holds several pillows alongside other assemblages and altered objects. Labor-In-Vain draws parallels between the contents of a hope chest and votive or burial goods: when does the prospect of marriage become so unlikely that one transforms into the other? The embroidered pillows highlight the connection between the domestic labor of women’s crafts and the transformative, biology-defying labor of women body builders. The work also touches upon the ways in which feminized labor is marginalized both when it aligns with the desires of men, and when it directly opposes and seeks to subvert those desires.