Activities per year
Abstract
This multicomponent research examines the second shift, the hidden shift of housework and childcare primarily carried out by women on top of their paid employment. Focusing on the home, it considers art as a means of resistance: looking for what is omitted in representation, paying attention to what seems unworthy of noticing at all, and showing our ways of making do and getting by. The second shift is physical, mental, and emotional labour which demands effort, skill and time but is unpaid, unaccounted for, unequally distributed and largely unrecognised. In 2016 the ONS estimated the value of the UK’s unpaid household service work exceeded a trillion pounds annually (63% of GDP).
This research aims to make the second shift and its attendant emotional affects visible, published as an award-winning photobook (2019), international exhibitions (2020), and developed into video and sculptural work. Sociological studies on the second shift are numerous yet, the lack of visibility is perhaps the biggest problem, with a paucity of visual art attempting to address it. The insistent distinction made between private and public masks a comprehensive inequality and the excuse for failing to address it. Recognising that gendered differences extend beyond the individual to the structural creates space to press for change; the personal is political. This research aims to build on that of artists such as Bobby Baker and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Taking its character of tactical resistance from Sylvia Plath’s poem Mushrooms, it illuminates the details of quotidian practices of housework and family care, with a quiet anger at what is taken for granted. The book’s interweaving of a poem by Leontia Flynn, along with the quotes and author’s own short text, frames a body of visual work whose quietness might have permitted the rage to pass unnoticed.
This research aims to make the second shift and its attendant emotional affects visible, published as an award-winning photobook (2019), international exhibitions (2020), and developed into video and sculptural work. Sociological studies on the second shift are numerous yet, the lack of visibility is perhaps the biggest problem, with a paucity of visual art attempting to address it. The insistent distinction made between private and public masks a comprehensive inequality and the excuse for failing to address it. Recognising that gendered differences extend beyond the individual to the structural creates space to press for change; the personal is political. This research aims to build on that of artists such as Bobby Baker and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Taking its character of tactical resistance from Sylvia Plath’s poem Mushrooms, it illuminates the details of quotidian practices of housework and family care, with a quiet anger at what is taken for granted. The book’s interweaving of a poem by Leontia Flynn, along with the quotes and author’s own short text, frames a body of visual work whose quietness might have permitted the rage to pass unnoticed.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Helsinki |
Publisher | Finnish Museum of Photography |
Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 16 Oct 2020 |
Keywords
- women's work
- photography
- second shift
- resistance
- feminism
- housework
- children
- family life
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'The Second Shift: Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Activities
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Magic of the Everyday: Clare Gallagher & Yvette Monahan in Conversation with Sean O'Hagan
Clare Gallagher (Speaker)
25 Nov 2020Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Falmouth University
Clare Gallagher (Visiting lecturer)
17 Mar 2020Activity: Visiting an external institution › Visiting an external academic institution
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Clare Gallagher in Conversation with Dr Mirjami Schuppert
Clare Gallagher (Speaker) & Mirjami Schuppert (Speaker)
5 Dec 2019Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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Subversive Mothers: Stop Rocking the Cradle and Start Rocking the Boat
Gallagher, C., 18 Mar 2023.Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review
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Artist Mothers & Other Parents: Love, Celebration and the Road Ahead: The Second Shift
Gallagher, C. & Judah, H., 29 Sept 2022Research output: Non-textual form › Exhibition
Open Access
Press/Media
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Clare Gallagher, The Second Shift
Clare Gallagher & Olga Yatskevich
20/02/20
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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The Second Shift by Clare Gallagher
Clare Gallagher & Rosita Sweetman
8/02/20
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research
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The Second Shift - Conscientious Photography Magazine
Clare Gallagher & Joerg Colberg
20/01/20
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research