A multi-media installation of projection, sculpture, digital collage, video and sound to critically examine the unseen labour of women.

Written by Melania Jack of The Ironing Maidens

The Ironing Maidens project is the art love child of Patty Preece and myself, Melania Jack. Over many years of shifting industry paradigms, from live shows to live streams and back, the project has seen many incarnations. During lockdown our inbox filled with cancellations of the live show into which we had just invested a year of work., So we adapted to the strange times by experimenting with media new to us, including a pilot episode of a narrative-based podcast, a live stream project, and most recently installation work. Some of these projects were a great experience, helping us to acquire new skills and experience new collaborations; others were like random op shop finds: we took them home, and they just didn’t quite fit.

We slowly realised that the previous show, A Soap Opera, would not tour again. It would be too long until venues reopened; and more personally, we had outgrown this work. Our political views on these subjects had changed too much. The world also felt different, more serious. How can we pun about ironing while people are dying from covid? How can we broach these domestic issues when people have had no choice but to be contained to the domestic home? It’s like calling a caged bird lazy. Still, it felt like there was so much left to say. While families isolated, more people spending more time at home meant more work for women. Sourdough bread and home improvements became just another expectation for women to add to their massive daily list of to do’s.

Statistically, and anecdotally, the housework situation hasn’t changed much for women since the 1950s. The stats show that from cleaning the home to cleaning up the environment, it’s still women doing the bulk of the work – physically and emotionally. On top of that we are not getting paid for it. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency, in a report released on the 12th December 2022, show that women earned, on average, $26,596 less than men in 2021-22.

We’ve spent generations teaching girls that they can ‘do anything’: more women as CEOs, more women learning to code, more women in tech; but when women in Australia are spending the equivalent of one whole month of housework each year more than their partners – how do they find time to further their careers and invest in themselves? How do we reinvigorate the stalled feminist revolution of the ‘70s that was meant to free women from the role of ‘domestic goddess’ when social media is bursting with cleaning influencers like Mrs Hinch, who are glamourising and cashing in on the collective social anxiety of the (COVID) moment?

With a lack of real solutions to the gender imbalance in the domestic debate, the common response is to send the work further down an even more feminised and also racialised line – hire a cleaner, send the clothes to the dry cleaner, pay for help, and in the spirit of the 4 hour work week – outsource, outsource, outsource. This excess work is increasingly the lot of low-paid, migrant and women of colour who are then experiencing rising rates of exploitation and abuse.

Feminists can call out for women to march, smash the patriarchy, pull down the capitalist structures, decolonise the country – but how do we start any of that while standing at a kitchen sink full of the greasy slippery dishes of romantic promise, family expectations and the ground-in grime of gender socialisation?
This is what I am exploring in Pressing Topics, a sound and projection installation that is presenting at NorthSite Contemporary Arts from December 2022.

In Strike, a projection and sculpture piece, I use the lens of glitch feminism (a term coined by Legacy Russell) to explore ironing itself – utilising a 1950s image of the quintessential housewife ironing. This is the image that second wave feminists rallied against – a white, middle class housewife doing all the housework among the avalanche of white goods designed to lure her back into the post war household. But there is a glitch, an error; the image breaks and reveals what is underneath: the women working in the factories to sew and iron those clothes she irons, the women in the factories building the iron and its components. Women are employed for their patience, attention to detail and ‘nimble fingers’. This trend that has moved from the fashion industry to the IT and new tech sector is seeing millions of women existing in modern day slavery conditions. Their slavery builds irons, for other slaves to iron. The irony is real.

In Domestic Body, I explore my own gender training within my family and society as an eldest girl child. The need to please, the guilt of not doing enough, the idea that satisfaction should come from a clean kitchen floor. The patronising pink used in this work is overt and constant, bleeding into the skin while the forced smile gleams. The body has become part of the machine: washing machine belly, iron hands – I am the tool and the work itself. Again, the glitch disrupts, exposing other emotions – fear, sadness, regret, loss, mania, anger. How is my self imagined in this domestic body?

I am sometimes asked: why do I care? As a queer, non-binary person who is trying to build a different life to the one I was raised in, I can choose to sit and read a book and let the dishes wait. But can I? I still feel the pressure to do the dishes first. Since taking on the co-care of an elder with dementia, I feel keenly the sense of duty to provide this care. As a woman. It seems cellular, but it is sold as feminine and nurturing – I know it is socialised. Children and elder care are a massive global themes. It is the work of women and like all feminised industries, it is underpaid and unacknowledged.

This gender imbalance seems to run all the way into our futures. Technology will not save us; it didn’t save the women of the 1950s, who just ended up with more work at home, managing the new machines. Now the smart homes of the future require new attention – to program the smart fridge, to talk to the assistant who will turn the lights on. Studies such as those in the recent book, ‘The Smart Wife’ by Jenny Kennedy and Yolande Strengers, show that in this ‘smart future’ the work is still feminised; from the voices of the assistants, to the design of modern robots, we are building this sexism into our future.

They (seem to) burn with a strange fury, a comment by a critic of the original Wages for Housework activists of the 1970s, is the title of one of the pieces of this exhibition. In it I have used an algorithm to explore the extent of our gendered programing around domestic labour. I use the words ‘cleaner’ and ‘housework’ to search online video and image. The top image results from these search terms are generally women. I project these images onto ironing boards that stand around a burning fire of irons. Are they planning a revolution? Are they burning the tools that oppress them? Are they the ghosts of the past or are they people from our future?

These strange years have birthed this new work, a deeper exploration of the themes of The Ironing Maidens project.
My hope with this exhibition is that I can navigate a path out of my own gender training, to check myself and my privilege. To find ways to revive that stalled domestic revolution, with a more expanded and inclusive view. Because really, I am tired of the housework. I am busting to get onto the next work, a new world, the next question – what does a non-binary, de-capitalised, de-colonialised world look and sound like?
I don’t know yet, but I have some ideas; I imagine you might too.

Words by Melania Jack
The Ironing Maidens
2022

VIEW EXHIBITION

The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Cairns Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

NorthSite appoints Katrina Iosia as Programs Coordinator

NorthSite Contemporary Arts is thrilled to announce the appointment of
Katrina Iosia in the position of Programs Coordinator.

Katrina joins the team from New Zealand, where she was working mostly in Public Programmes Assistant, Gallery Assistant at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, and formerly an Art Tutor/ Educator at Whitecliffe College of Art and Design.

“I am excited and grateful for the opportunity to be part of the amazing team here at NorthSite. The amount of support has made settling into the role so much easier, especially being part of a healthy work environment that supports inclusion, cultural diversity and a positive work and family life balance.

A huge thank you to Ashleigh, NorthSite staff and the Board for their support. I’m really looking forward to working together to create art and design workshops with the arts community. Continue to support the astonishing and well-established printmaking society, and introduce creative technologies, NFT workshops, and activities that will increase engagement for families, youth, and outreach into the wider community,” said Katrina Iosia.

As a celebrated Niuean artist and designer, Katrina Iosia is recognized as a leading female AR designer and developer in Aotearoa.

“We are thrilled to be welcoming Katrina into the NorthSite family and I can see that her passion, drive and skills will really benefit artists and designers in Far North Queensland. Particularly as we build a program of art workshops and activities and increase community delivery and programs from our new venue, NorthSite Art Studios in Cairns.
Katrina’s knowledge and culturally embedded approach to arts education and design will be an asset to creatives in Far North Queensland and Australia more widely.” said Ashleigh Campbell, Artistic Director / CEO.

Katrina has hit the ground running and this week has been invited to present and participate in the Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Modern Opening Week Program, presenting digital interactive art and also presenting a deep dive into the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
Link to book

Congratulations Katrina and welcome to Aus and NorthSite!!
 

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ARTIST BIO

Katrina Iosia has quickly emerged as a dynamic and leading woman in Augmented Reality as a designer, developer and artist in Aotearoa (NZ). As a Pasifika woman in Art and Technology, she has traversed seamlessly into the international Mixed Reality art scene. She has exhibited with ‘Digital Art Month’ in Paris (2021), a featured artist in the 2022 Vancouver Mural Winter Arts Festival. Katrina is the only lens creator with Snapchat from Aoteroa, an ambassador, and creator for Snap Spectacles AR powered glasses. She has years of experience as an NFT creator and coordinator, who has been a voice within the NFT Pasifika Pilot Program (Creative NZ), Digital Fellowship Program Partnership(Australian Council for the arts), Panelist for Digital Moana, Pacific Summit and currently Digital Moana Fellowship (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Welcoming Hamish Sawyer

On behalf of the NorthSite Board and Artistic Director/CEO Ashleigh Campbell we are pleased to announce that Hamish Sawyer is joining the NorthSite team as Acting Director in November 2022. Hamish has extensive experience and expertise within the creative arts industry and will support NorthSite during Ashleigh’s maternity leave from March 2023.

“NorthSite is in a stable and exciting position, and I’m extremely grateful to our dedicated staff and Board who have worked hard over the past years to reach our position.

It means a lot to be well supported, at this time of incoming baby while running a multifaceted, not-for-profit arts company.

I’m particularly thrilled that we’ve engaged Hamish Sawyer as Acting Director. Hamish brings a wealth of insight and curatorial skills, and his perspectives are valued and supported as we work with our team to look ahead, collaborating across our organisation to build the next 5-year plan for NorthSite.

I have no doubt that Hamish’s appointment will strengthen our artistic program and the profile of artists in the north, through his close working relationships with the arts community, NorthSite curator and gallery office Aven Noah Jr and the rest of our creative team,” said Ashleigh Campbell.

Hamish is well respected within the arts industry and is highly experienced as a curator and senior leader.

“I’m very grateful to the NorthSite board for this opportunity to join the organisation at a pivotal moment in its history. NorthSite plays a leading role in the development and presentation of contemporary visual art in Far North Queensland, one of the most culturally diverse and dynamic arts ecologies in Australia.
 
I’m looking forward to working with Ashleigh Campbell and the amazing NorthSite team to deliver next year’s calendar of exhibitions and events; as well as developing longer-term strategic exhibition and program priorities.
 
I can’t wait to get started,” said Hamish Sawyer.

Welcome to the team Hamish! 

Hamish Sawyer, Acting Director – NorthSite Contemporary Arts

New creative space

You may have heard the buzz… NorthSite and our friends at InkMasters are excited to have been through a process of transition recently, with the handing over of the baton!

NorthSite is commencing operations of NorthSite Art Studios, 55 Greenslopes Street, Edge Hill.

This phenomenal workshop space was managed by InkMasters recently and operated as Djumbunji Press KickArts Fine Art Printmaking 2009 – 2012.

We’re aware we have huge shoes to fill in terms of the extraordinary work that the InkMasters committee have achieved for printmaking in the region over the past decade, but we’re also aware of the huge potential of the site for the far north community of artists.

We want to hear from you. Tell us your experiences and aspirations and if you have a burning idea for a creative workshop you’d like to deliver or participate in – let us know by filling in the survey here.

Yours in art – Team NorthSite

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Read more in Tropic Magazine: Click here

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UPCOMING EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

 

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