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On Tuesday, March 19an. 16, 2024, at 11.30 a.m. Joseph Gallivan interviews Alexandra Terry about the show Labor of Love which is on now through April 27 at The JSMA at Portland State University. Terry talks about the concept of hidden labor and invisible workers, as well as arts works such as a collection of daggers made in prison, a video of a choir recreating songs from slaves in a sugar cane field, and an artist who paints on flattened produce boxes.
Terry is the Curator of Contemporary Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe.
This show was recorded on an iPhone 14 with a Rode mic on March 8, 2024
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE:
https://www.pdx.edu/events/labor-love
On View: January 16 – April 27, 2024
Panel Discussion and Reception: January 18, 4 – 7 PM
Featured Artists: Tania Candiani, Tannaz Farsi, Jay Lynn Gomez, Midori Hirose, Charlene Liu, Alberto Lule, Narsiso Martinez, and Patrick Martinez
The artists featured in Labor of Love produce work that aims to expose and highlight labor practices that have been historically and systematically concealed from the public sphere. Working across a wide variety of media and using a range of conceptual approaches, the eight artists exhibited here seek to explore that which is often hidden just under the surface or kept at arm’s length: the physical, emotional, and intellectual labor that is vital to the smooth and ongoing function of innumerable aspects of our everyday lives.
Hidden, unseen, or invisible labor is work that goes unnoticed, unacknowledged, and thus, unregulated, and that is too often unpaid or poorly paid. Invisible labor is often performed by people who belong to marginalized groups, including migrants and refugees, women, nonbinary and gender nonconforming individuals, people of color, and people of lower socioeconomic status. Those who perform invisible labor are further marginalized by the sheer fact that their work isn’t seen, properly compensated, or acknowledged. In its many forms, hidden labor has ripple effects: much of what we consume every day—the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the content we watch and read—is made available to us through the time, energy, and often backbreaking labor of unidentified individuals we will never meet.
The artists in Labor of Love strive to tell stories that have been purposefully hidden. In doing so, they reveal problematic aspects of our public narratives and confront issues of systemic racism, immigration, class inequality, and gender discrimination. Collectively, they believe that to ameliorate the burdens of invisible labor, that labor must be made visible: only then can its inequities be addressed. Their actions endeavor to reveal what has been kept out of sight, and to celebrate, acknowledge, and empower the individuals and groups whose stories they have chosen to tell.
Labor of Love is curated by Alexandra Terry, Curator of Contemporary Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe. Support for this exhibition provided by The Ford Family Foundation, the Richard & Helen Phillips Charitable Fund and the Exhibition Circle.
Learn more: sites.google.com/pdx.edu/jsma-at-psu/labor-of-love
Image Caption: Patrick Martinez and Jay Lynn Gomez, Labor of Love, 2022, stucco, neon, ceramic, acrylic paint, spray paint, latex house paint, family archive photos, ceramic tile and LED signs on panel; acrylic on cardboard, fabric, 60 x 120 inches, Courtesy of the artists and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently a Feature Writer. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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