WOMEN'S WORK

2022.

Performance (duration: 8 hours; using about 25 kgs of yarn, which was used to build an installation after)

During the day-long performance I put the technique of knitting in a new context. Traditionally considered a woman's handicraft, this functionally oriented activity became transfigured in the process, as it was stripped of its function and presented as a challenging, monotonous, all-day-long labour, resulting in nearly a hundred metres of knitted fabric covering the site. The knitted fabric formed a real link between the participants in the process and then lived on as an installation, enmeshing the site. The long bands of knitting could be a representation of the connections between women, or we could associate them with the umbilical cord and through it the thoughts of our birth or giving birth. My work creates an opportunity to reflect on traditional and stereotypical female roles and tasks.
"In G. Szabó's case, the expressive and liberating power of work, is its community-organising effect. The duality of the creative-creational aspect of weaving, sewing and tailoring, and the sustaining and cyclical aspect of repairing torn and damaged material, puts the perception of reproductive-productive female labour in a special position, which the artist's performance installation perfectly brings into the post-feminist discourse." Laura Győrfy, Prae.hu (source)

Presented at Lóvasút Cultural Center,
Photo: Hodosy Enikő
Participants:
Rajcsányi Edit, Somogyi Alett, Pomykala Kamilla, Bakos Boglárka, Nagy Regina, Foster Dorottya,
Sziklai Réka, Tóti Zóra, Makai Panna, Kass Andrea