HomeWork: Doing the Math

When HouseWork(s) travelled to the Kamloops Art Gallery in 2015, Hall added a new performance piece that incorporated the “story aprons” from Auntie Crae’s in St. John’s, and the questions counting hours of housework for the work portraits from Arnold’s Cove. Using long commercial aprons, Hall inscribed the working hours of audience members who filled out questionnaires adding up the hours they spent on ordinary “housework”. Ironing, shopping, cleaning, and childcare were some of the categories participants counted , and passed to Hall, who inscribed them with care on blank white aprons and “did the math” standing at an ironing board in the gallery for 6 hours. When she was finished, a new “workhouse” had been created that, in its own mysterious numerology, revealed some of the layers of labour — conceptual, physical and emotional — that we invest, without noting, every day.