Curators’ Introductions to Solo Exhibitions- Unpaid Labour 2015
Dr. Denis Longchamps, Chief curator at the Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, ON
The Artistic career of Mary Rawlyk is multifold. Of interest for the exhibition, Unpaid Labour, is her practice as a printmaker from 1970 to the 1990s when she explored themes of domesticity.
The work focuses on womens’ contributions to the family in the form of unpaid and unrecognized Labour. Her prints were produced in a domestic environment where she gave priority to her family concerns. Of course family obligation took precedence over her urge to create, and the necessary compromises were not always welcome.
The prints presented in Unpaid Labour, highlight the isolation of the domestic workplace. Interestingly, while the prints are from more than twenty years ago, still today, domestic work is taken for granted as the obligation of women. Mary Rawlyk used many printmaking techniques: soft ground etching, relief and screen printing, off-set, and photographic heat transfer process. Aprons and household appliances are used to represent Unpaid Labour .