Labour Lexica is a group exegesis on labour. Drawn together under the themes of work, precarity and language, three artists respond to their perceptions and experiences of work as expressed through bodily, lexical and material conditions. The precariat is a position inhabited by many, with artists and arts workers in the ranks. While they may be subjected to and even complicit in the logics of labour and capital, an awareness and refusal of this position still finds expression.

In dance piece, Maki Morita draws on her background in theatre-making to lightly poke fun at the Sisyphean slog, riffing on clerical labour, bureaucracy and the choreographed performance of productivity. Lachlan Marley reinterprets familiar materials essential to his work as a concreter, combining them with traditional art materials. By introducing elements of futility to the physical and mental work of construction, he breaks out of a utilitarian logic into an aesthetic and critical one. In Everlasting Nail, Luce Nguyễn-Hunt has fashioned a set of sterling silver rings to be worn over fingernails. In framing the rings as queer signifiers that can be removed or reapplied, Luce explores codeswitching and the politics of refusing to explicate and share certain knowledges with those not proximate to one’s own community.

Curated by Ada Coxall, Coral Guan, and Sebastian Kainey, Labour Lexica veers away from solution-oriented inquiry, employing both irreverence and sincerity to conduct a series of refusals and reversals.

Read the catalogue here.