Museum London Exhibition Features Melanie Manos and Sarah Buckius

Three videos by the ManosBuckius Cooperative — Melanie Manos (MFA 2008) and Sarah Buckius (MFA 2006) — are featured in the exhibition The Daily Grind, open Dec. 19 — Apr. 24 at Ivey Galleries in Museum London (London, Ontario). Melanie Manos also exhibits an installation titled Leisure Time and will perform, with hammock, at the opening reception.

This group exhibition is comprised of contemporary artworks that speak to concepts of work, including absurdist satire and sobering sociopolitical insight. Its themes address definitions of labour versus ​‘unproductive’ effort, rituals of office and industrial culture, the impact of new technologies on the experience of employment, and, importantly, the value of artistic labour and realities faced by artists.

A wide range of installations, textile works, videos and more, by artists including Camilla Singh, Kelly Mark, Stephanie Aitken, the Manos/​Buckius and BGL collectives and others, comment on labour’s diverse and changing settings, such as the communal ​“break room.” Given the centrality of work in our lives as a means of survival, labour is a broad, complex and contentious topic, one that evokes issues of power and control, and examples of agency and imagination. Taken together, the works featured in The Daily Grind offer new, expressive, intersections between aesthetics and activism.

The Daily Grind
December 19^th, 2015 — April 24^th, 2016
Opening Reception: Feb. 5, 2016
Ivey Galleries
Museum London
London, Ontario, Canada