Lady Labor / Something Projects, CT
Lady Labor
Lady Labor Project are “how-to” videos that feature artists Crystal Heiden and Roxy Savage teaching each other specific acts of female labor that are primary to their individual art practices. Both share conceptual and feminist mindsets but possess very different skill sets. Crystal is a multimedia artist who is a metal fabricator, problem solver, and tool expert. Roxy is an interdisciplinary artist working in analog and digital media focusing on kitchenalia and domestic space. The videos are a record of the artist’s “skill exchanges”: Crystal teaches Roxy how to dig a hole, navigate via compass, use a skill saw, and be a mermaid. Roxy shares her “domestic repurposing skills” teaching Crystal how to iron shower caps, make jello sculptures, smash molds, print on shower curtains, and sew a straight line. The videos document the powerful skills all women possess and can gift each other. Creating this collaborative artwork aims to present two diverse sets of “art-making actions” (domestic and utilitarian) that reveal, challenge, and entangle female stereotypes.