#NeverNotWorking (2018), a durational art performance by artist and curator Ekaterina Juskowki commissioned by Untitled Art, Miami Beach. #NeverNotWorking is a popular Social Media hashtag used to promote the idea of someone working very hard. This art project invites participants to look at the #NeverNotWorking concept in the context of workplace exploitation through wage theft, pay equity issues and, the trafficking of individuals brought to the United States and treated as modern-day slaves.
The performance ran daily throughout Miami Art Week, for a total of 50 hours. Over 100 participating volunteers honored domestic work and showed solidarity with the domestic workers in the United States by participating in the performance. The visual component of the performance consisted of clotheslines used traditionally for drying washed laundry. Each of the 100 participants was given 30 minutes to hang white sheets on the lines and then to take the sheets down. Each participant left the installation as it was found, allowing the next person to come in and perform the same task allowing participants and passersby to experience the repetitive, never-ending nature of domestic work.
The repetitive nature of household labor contributes to its invisibility. By bringing domestic labor out of the “private” sphere and into the public arena, the project emphasized its importance to families, communities, and economies, and celebrated the beauty of daily labor performed with care.
The project was produced by the Miami Girls Foundation in partnership with the Miami Worker's Center and Advocacy Partners.
