Maria Eichhorn’s 5 Weeks, 25 Days, 175 Hours (2016): Subjectivity and Time in Post-Fordist Labor

Clara

doi:10.24310/ba.44.2023.16282

Authors

Clara Columbia University United States https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0806-8742

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24310/ba.44.2023.16282

Keywords:

Maria Eichhorn, Institutional Critique, Subjectivation, Labor, Post-Fordism, Conceptual Art, Precarization

Abstract

In this essay, Maria Eichhorn’s 2016 intervention at Chisenhale Gallery 5 weeks, 25 days, 175 hours serves as a foundation to examine the figure of the artistic worker in the Post-Fordist context. Departing from an art-historical analysis of Eichhorn’s gesture of closing the gallery and giving the staff free time, I explore the new subjectivity of the worker from a bio-political perspective, dwelling on the notion of self-precarization. An analysis of Eichhorn’s work shows how the neoliberal worker has been revealed as a subject who takes responsibility for her job insecurity and allows work to penetrate her private life. I argue that Eichhorn’s gesture acts as a reminder of how, as a consequence of the development of the new model of labor, every aspect of life is occupied by the imperative of productivity, complicating traditional ways of resistance.

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