Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge, Kajsa Dahlberg,
Duane Linklater → John Hampton, Juan Ortiz-Apuy, Joshua Schwebel

Curated by Sam Cotter
June 23 – August 6, 2016
Opening Thursday, June 23, 6 – 9pm

Working Conditions brings together the work of artists questioning where they stand and what they stand amidst. Acknowledging that the studio exists at the intersection of many ecologies, the artists place themselves in relation to factors beyond their place of production, looking at the power dynamics, blind spots and measures of success contained in the economies and ecosystems surrounding them. Their interactions negotiate complicities, rights and responsibilities while pushing at the blurry boundaries between art and life.

In Working Conditions, the act of asking a question is framed as a tool to confront reality: taking stock of both one’s position and the conditions around them. Here production is linked to conversation and negotiation, assembling becomes a means of disassembly and concrete answers dissolve into a search for better questions.

Within the exhibition, the term “working conditions” becomes twofold: signalling evaluation, as the artists look outward to understand the mechanics of work and labour framing their practice, and introspection, as the artists form their personal terms of engagement or the conditions under which they are willing to work. Looking at a diverse range of subjects—from the moderators of Wikipedia to the producers of video equipment, from the precarious economies of artist-run centres to the family breakfast table and beyond—the artists in Working Conditions ask how their actions influence and are influenced by the world around them.