CURATORIAL PROPOSAL AND RESEARCH ON THE ‘INVISIBLE LABOUR’ OF ARTISTS.

Zakkiya Hamza, In(Visible): Pushed to the Sidelines | Curatorial Proposal and Research, 2024

Invisible labour is a defining characteristic of the identity, process and practice of artists. Invisible labour attaches itself to current artistic work with the distorted perception of autonomy, flexibility and freedom. The research undertaken seeks to understand the manners in which obscuring the labour shouldered by artists contributes to precarity.

By adopting an interdisciplinary research approach to analysing the socioeconomic history of the position of artists in Western society, I examine the consequences in contemporary society. Additionally, the development of this complex history is also analysed in current society through a feminist lens.

The findings of this research form the genesis of my curatorial proposal for a future exhibition titled In(Visible): Pushed to the Sidelines. In addition, my research discusses the normalisation of artistic work by implementing artistic labour reforms and rejecting the ideology of exceptionalism and autonomy. My curatorial proposal can elucidate the invisible labour of artists; however, my research findings indicate an urgency in the institutional restructuring of labour that goes beyond an exhibition space.

Zakkiya Hamza