Labouring Bodies

“Labouring Bodies” addresses the mechanisation of the body through various thematic lenses. By bringing together works by 36 artists, the exhibition examines the gendered assignment of repetitive office tasks using typewriters and computers, and connects the history of textile production with digital technology, highlighting the overlooked contributions of women to computing history.

The group exhibition demonstrates how the human body, particularly the feminised and marginalised body, has been controlled by machines since the dawn of the modern age, while also serving as a site of resistance. Historical and contemporary works trace these lines into the present to address data work in the globalised labour market. Developed from a feminist viewpoint, the exhibition critically reappraises contemporary discourse on the body, questioning reductive readings such as the celebration of human-machine hybridity.