Kerry Guinan’s Worker Performing the Gallery is a performance piece, performed for the artist by 126's technician and board member Marcel Ferrer. Paying Marcel to paint the floor of the gallery “meticulously”, as the contract states, with a 1 inch brush.
I know this is good but I’m finding it difficult to articulate why. Commenting on the minimum wage, the aspect I find most poignant about it is the “meticulously” part. The intentional monotony of it. The fact that a job that would normally take Marcel an hour or so, was intentionally made tedious, while being incentivised by minimum wage that Marcel never looked for before. Also that the painting would have been done for free, quicker and better before but Guinans stipulations made it take longer, look worse (it’s all patchy) and cost more.
Guinan works with contracts a lot. She’s renamed herself for a year. She’s rented a small portion of an empty store with the stipulation that the rest cannot be let. Contracted intricate stipulations of the sexual interactions between her and her partner over the course of 3 weeks.
Again this feels like an important discourse, even more so because I can’t pin it down
cargocollective.com/kerryguinan
I know this is good but I’m finding it difficult to articulate why. Commenting on the minimum wage, the aspect I find most poignant about it is the “meticulously” part. The intentional monotony of it. The fact that a job that would normally take Marcel an hour or so, was intentionally made tedious, while being incentivised by minimum wage that Marcel never looked for before. Also that the painting would have been done for free, quicker and better before but Guinans stipulations made it take longer, look worse (it’s all patchy) and cost more.
Guinan works with contracts a lot. She’s renamed herself for a year. She’s rented a small portion of an empty store with the stipulation that the rest cannot be let. Contracted intricate stipulations of the sexual interactions between her and her partner over the course of 3 weeks.
Again this feels like an important discourse, even more so because I can’t pin it down
cargocollective.com/kerryguinan