Stop Work contains artworks that act as proposals to remake the purpose, shape, and meaning of work in our collective experience.

In the last five years, our globalised society has experienced multiple transformations that have complicated our ways of exchanging labour for money. The COVID-19 pandemic rendered many in-person jobs untenable, prompting a wave of improvised adaptations to prop up business as usual. The rug-pull has continued into the era of artificial intelligence and robot labour, driving both economic and existential dread. With the concept of a ‘steady job’ now obsolete, it’s nearly impossible to predict what employment will look like in even two years’ time. This offers artists the perfect vantage point to ask: what was work?

The artists in this exhibition offer singular perspectives on the imploding norms of labour. They reflect on what work once was, what it is now, and what it might become – drawn from lived experiences that challenge conventional understandings of productivity. Artworks explore sabotage and monkey-wrenching, inefficiency and de-optimisation, and imagination as a defiant force against exploitation.

Curated by Loren Kronemyer.

Image credit: Martin Forster, Pepsi Max (detail), 2018. Pencil on paper