WORK IT!

About

“Is it worth it? Lemme work it […] To my ladies;

You sure know how to work that”

WORK IT! seeks to illuminate feminine labour within the context of artistic and creative communities.

WORK IT! will explicitly explore the role of female labour as an artist and creative individual and thinking through the role of the “day job”.

WORK IT! is about the inevitable links between gendered performance and the performance embodied in making and doing work. How does female labour automatically relate our bodies to the beauty and fashion industries, the relationship between gender commodification and the performance of gender specific work?

By producing a merchandised shop within a gallery space, artworks will function as commodified objects, strategically displayed as if for sale, replicating displays of jewelry and clothing. This gallery/shop will mimic a nail salon or beauty parlor, with YB Collective performing their roles as shop girls. Including new collage, digital video work and sculpture produced by YB Collective members, this multi-disciplinary beauty shop hints at the necessity to commercialise not only the work we make but also our bodies and identities as a consumable package.

Ellie Barrett is primarily a sculptor, underpinning this with video and digital work. Adopting a comic stance, she observes existing yet evasive notions of the marvellous in crude objects by reproducing them as artworks. Ellie is a current director of The Royal Standard, Liverpool and a Lecturer at Lancaster University and Hereford College of Art. Recent exhibitions include HOT / FRESH / SLICE, (solo exhibition, AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-On-Trent) Pivot (Project Cafe, Glasgow), Isla Nublar (Constellations, Liverpool) and Treat Yo Self (Bloc Projects, Sheffield).

www.elliebarrett.com

Dani Bessner is a writer and curator, focused on contemporary art theory and criticism. With a specialization in post-1990 sculpture and installation, Bessner has written on a wide variety of artworks and exhibitions. Currently, she is completing her Masters in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, in addition to having worked at art institutions throughout London and in Toronto, Canada.  

Olivia Brazier is an artist working with painting and collage. Her practice focuses on our intriguing relationship with food and the bizarre diet-fads of today. Decoupages gathered from porn magazines and supermarket flyers create unlikely pairings that take a literal approach to how much we love food and the overwhelming choices food can impose on us. Recent exhibitions include the opening of Switch House at the Tate Modern as well as a feature in Arcane Contemporary Art Magazine summer issue.

www.oliviabrazier.co.uk

Sophie Rogers is a video based artist whose practice focuses on the act of storytelling. Through compositing and computer generated imagery, she creates curious landscapes that act as manufactured alternative spaces for fictions and fairy tales to take place. Sophie is based in London and has had work exhibited at the Barbican Centre, Tate Modern as part of Offprint London with Self Publish Be Happy TV, and most recently at Future Late, the opening of the Switch House (Tate Modern).

www.sophierogers.co.uk

YOUR BEAUTIFUL COLLECTIVE

yourbeautifulcollective.wordpress.com

yourbeautifulcollective@gmail.com

TWITTER: @yb_collective

INSTAGRAM: @yourbeautifulcollective