Date of Award
Spring 5-9-2015
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Art and Design
First Advisor
Susan Richmond
Second Advisor
John Decker
Third Advisor
Gyewon Kim
Abstract
Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ 1973 performance, Transfer: Maintenance of the Art Object posed a comparison between her own gendered household labor and the labor of a maintenance worker in a museum. The performance also addressed the hierarchies of maintenance work versus artistic work as well as invisible work versus public work, and is often interpreted as serving to equalize these boundaries. While hierarchies are questioned within this piece, this paper argues that the performance primarily serves to acknowledge and maintain the inevitability of these existing hierarchies within the art institution, rather than eliminate them.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/7045865
Recommended Citation
Gary, Meta, "Maintaining Hierarchies: The Perpetuation of Class and Labor Divisions in Mierle Laderman Ukeles' Transfer: Maintenance of the Art Object." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2015.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/7045865