As we end the fourth day of our exhibition STANDARD STANDARD at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, this evening’s feature is no other than Emily Oliveira. You have never seen anything like their Labor-In-Vain series, so come to room 2324 on Sunday or Monday, March 5th and 6th!

Labor-In-Vain is a series of embroidered pillows and banners featuring women bodybuilders. The work highlights the connection between the domestic labor of women’s crafts, the invisible labor of outsourced black and brown women textile workers, and the labor of women bodybuilders. The assemblage materials used on the pillows interrupts their utility and rejects the misinterpretation of the handmade as a charming relic of the past. Instead these materials place the act of the handmade in the present and visceral world of global labor and materials culled from dinner scraps. Labor-In-Vain touches upon the ways in which feminized labor is marginalized both when it aligns with the desires of men/the market, and when it directly opposes and seeks to subvert those desires.

Emily is a Brooklyn-based performance artist, sculptor and costume designer. They are a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and studied performance at Brown University. Outside of their visual art practice, Emily’s performance works include I Am One of Them and So Are You (Brown University), DELILAH (What Is Love? Baby Don’t Hurt Me) (Hot! Festival of Queer Theater at Dixon Place), Everything Happens for a Reason (Judson Memorial Church), So Thick That Everybody Else in the Room is so Uncomfortable (Cloud City), Do You Ever Long for True Love From Me (Judson Memorial Church) and KINGS AND QUEENS OF LOVE (Ars Nova). Their work uses transcribed text, original and popular music, dance, and full-body costumes to subvert the despotism of white femininity and examine narratives about love, sex and race in American popular culture. Their costumes have been shown at The Judson Memorial Church, Invisible Dog, The Center for Performance Research and Theatre for the New City.

Emily’s pieces are such a satisfying complement to the strong QTPOC narratives found in STANDARD STANDARD. 4 Times Sq. Don’t miss out!