W is for Women’s Work

January — April 2022

This work, a hand sewn 1950s style apron worn by me a decidedly older woman demands attention. The apron is made from high-vis work wear which is predominantly though not exclusively worn by men. This work draws attention to the statistic that “women spend 64.4% of their average weekly working time on unpaid care work compared to 36.1% of men.” I have chosen the style of the apron as a nod to the longevity of women’s invisible labour and the materials to illustrate that women’s labour needs to be visible. The poses I have performed are those of me doing everyday ‘cleaning’. I want people as they walk or drive by to think that there is a woman in the window cleaning. Of course, they will realise quickly that this is not the case. Hopefully, they will consider that it is time to acknowledge the invisible unpaid work women do day in day out, in the home, in the office.

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JWAC facade
420 Brunswick Street (Berwick St facing)
Fortitude Valley Q 4006
(map here)

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Deborah Eddy is an emerging mature age Australian feminist artist and researcher who works in the field of sculpture and performance. She lives and works in the Moreton Bay Region. Her area of research is historical feminist activist art and feminist gerontological theory.

Her work comments on women’s domestic inequality, domestic violence, and the environment. She uses sculpture and performance to speak about her experience and perspective of ageing and society. Eddy uses the methodology of craftivism which is craft plus activism to make sculptures and the costumes in which she performs. She uses sewing, weaving, knitting and embroidery and employs building supplies and safety equipment to make her work. These materials are a deliberate feminising of items more commonly associated in male orientated occupations. Often, she will also add cleaning materials.

She achieved a Bachelor of Arts 1st class Honours in 2017 and is now completing a Doctor of Visual Arts. She attended the Feminist Art Collective Residency in Toronto in 2018. She presented at the Lilith Symposium in 2019 and the Activism @ the Margins Conference in February 2020. Eddy has exhibited solo, in group exhibitions and in regional gallery exhibitions. Her work is in private and public collections.