'CSA Series (Performances in the store cupboard/Avoiding Customer Service Assistance)'
3 x photographic prints, each approx 20 x 16 cm.
London, UK
“The focus on work as the arena in which the individual can, with the proper self-discipline, will his or her own self-development and transformation continues to be affirmed today … The worldliness of, for example, unruly bodies, seductive pleasures, and spontaneous enjoyment poses a constant challenge to the mandate for such focused attention to and diligent effort in properly productive pursuits”
Kathi Weeks The Problem with Work; Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries
While working as a Customer Service Assistant (CSA) in a regional museum and gallery I found the disjuncture between the positive, ambitious, self-motivated person required by the job advert and the mundane reality of the monotonous rigid role striking. Feeling bored and frustrated I started setting myself small challenges to keep my own creative work going while being paid as a CSA.
Although generally unsupervised, CSA’s were expected to adopt the mindset of management and remain professional in their work at all times so this project became a private game where I had to make as many small interventions and secret performances as I could without being caught by management and without completely alienating myself from my colleagues.
Exhibited in A State of Un-Play will be three photographs documenting this series of works.