Maíra das Neves

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Workdays
2021/2022
watercolor on cotton paper, mounted on foam board and passe-partout
34 x 26 cm each


above:
Intermittent exhibition view 
Tangent Projects, Barcelona, 2023
photo: Isa Jasmin

A body in work mode. It moves according to rotating calendars; bodily functions are set by pre-determined shifts and pauses. The accelerated rhythm of competitive production rates is imposed upon the worker, who must perform under an eternal feeling of jet-lag.

Workdays is the title of two sets of 22 watercolours. Each set follows the pattern of a calendar of one month’s work. In this case, with alternate working weekends and varying free weekdays. These patterns dictate and regulate the workers’ lives. Each watercolour has a predominantly black surface with some small area of light, and at times some colour. As with the repetition of days, the paintings are similar but they are all different. They also suggest the impossibility to see ahead, to understand the overall machine we are part of. Each watercolour is mounted by the artist on a precarious paper frame, giving each of them some structure, though they are still fragile.

They were part of the solo show Intermittent, which offered a subjective perspective from the artist’s personal experience as a cognitive worker in late capitalism and its data economy.

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