Backyard Economy

The title quotes two super-8-films by Martha Rosler from 1974, Backyard Economy I and Backyard Economy II (Diane Germaine mowing), in which the artist draws an intimate connection between reproductive and artistic labor. The exhibition takes such early Marxist-feminist perspectives and practices of institutional critique as its point of departure and relates them to contemporary conditions. The works on display deal with motifs of the peripheral and of exclusion, thereby exploring dynamics that arise between forms of representation, the engagement within the conditions of (aesthetic) production, and the effects of institutionalization. They address interactions of valorization and devaluation, exploitation and profit both inside and outside the art field. By questioning binary constructions, gender-specific codifications, and colonial imprints at work in reproductive labor, value production, and property relations, the artistic works devote themselves to tackling quite persistent clichés.

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY

adO/Aptive collective
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
Tiffany Domke
Laura Egger-Karlegger
Samuel Ekeh
Andrea Fraser
Melanie Gilligan
Karrabing Film Collective
Elly Niebuhr
Laura S. Oyuela Flores
Marshall Paul
Lucie Pia
Falke Pisano
Martha Rosler
Alfred Soulek
Constantina Zavitsanos
Ella Zwatz

Invited by Jenni Tischer (Art and Knowledge Transfer) and Stefanie Kitzberger (Collection and Archive)
Sponsored by the Danubian Bank

Lucie Pia’s contribution is on view at
Tiny Mutual Admiration Societies
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Painting Department, 6th floor, room 626
Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna
8/Dec/2022 – 15/Jan/2023 Hours: Mon – Sun, 12 am – 8 pm
All venues and events: free admission, wheelchair accessible

Hours: Wed–Sat, 2–6 pm