Kay Abude is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She has an expanded sculptural practice working in large-scale installation, photography, performance, video and silk screen printing. Abude’s work is about work itself: the value of it, the effort, the inequality and insecurity of it, especially for artists. Her recent commissions include BE CREATIVE REMAIN RESILIENT, Mural Commission, The Showroom, London, United Kingdom, 2023-24; Smoko Room, Paul Selzer Prize, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Southbank, 2023; (DON’T) BE AN ARTIST, Flash Forward – Creative Laneways Project, The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne, 2021; NEVER WORK/ STOP WORKING, NGV Triennial EXTRA, NGV International, Melbourne, 2021; and WORK WORTH DOING, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, Victoria, 2020-21. Abude was a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne from 2019 to 2022.
Kay Abude
NEVER WORK/ STOP WORKING
2021
Silk screen on cotton work aprons
Exhibited as part of Triennial EXTRA at the National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne from 27 January - 14 February 2021
Kay Abude’s NEVER WORK / STOP WORKING draws attention to the work being undertaken by catering staff in the NGV’s Grollo Equiset Garden and makes their labour visible as a form of performance during Triennial EXTRA. The artwork invites reflection from the service staff adorning Abude’s hand silk screen-printed work aprons and Triennial EXTRA audiences on ideas about the nature and meaning of work and labour in our current climate. The text depicted on their work aprons is appropriated from artworks by Guy Debord (Never work!, 1953) and Rirkrit Tiravanija (Untitled 2015 (14,086 unfired), 2015.
All photographs by Margund Sallowsky.
