Objects 2 & 3
2021-2022
Traces of Care (Work) is a set of five different constellations of objects that shift the perspective of addressing care-work from that of the human actors to the perspective of those ‘inanimate’ objects that exist within the specific environment of at-home-care-work. Far from leaving behind the presence of professional and non-professional care workers, as well as the presence of the people being taken care of, the appearance of common objects together with objects of care helps us realize that they show more than what they are alone. Neither the objects of care-work, nor the people who did them, use, need or even come in near contact with them, ex. as a relative carer, may be addressed separately from each other. This installations regards the relations happening between objects of care-work and other human and non-human actors as alliances or kinships, as described by María Puig de la Bellacasa’s reading of Haraway these two actions become trans-formative connections which merge inherited and constructed relations (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017).
These objects are magnifiers through which one can see not only the relevance of professional and non-professional care-workers, but also the history behind the tools that maintain, aid and support human lives, reminding us that science making is as well an affair of care.
Reference:
Puig de la Bellacasa, María. 2017. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds, page:73. N.p.: University of Minnesota Press.
Presented at:
Sala Terrena, University Gallery, Vienna, 2022. As part of the exhibition Backyard Economy Initiated by Jenni Tischer and Stephanie Kitzberger. Find more about the exhibition here: https://www.fkw-journal.de/index.php/fkw/article/view/1682/1663
Save Cultural Identity, Never At Home, Vienna, Jan. 2023. As part of the exhibition while we wait curated by Alivewire Collective.
Backhaus Projects, Berlin, Nov. 2023. As part of Objects of Care curated by ASTRO.
Fotos: Manuel Carreon Lopez (1-2), alivewire collective (3-4)
