HEKLER ASSEMBLY: Infrastructures of Care 
See full program here.

Session #1: Solidarity Economy 
When: Saturday, October 2, 2021 12-3pm ET
Where: Zoom

Hosts: Rashmi Viswanathan, Caroline Woolard

This session introduces Infrastructures of Care through an exploration of core issues including labor compensation, universal wages, and new collective practices that support waged labor and care in the arts.

Session material

Silvia Federici, Wages Against Housework
Nancy Fraser, How feminism became capitalism's handmaiden - and how to reclaim it
Caroline Woolard HEKLER Assembly: Solidarity Economy, Presentation

REFLECTION

This workshop was intended to think about the historical and present capacities of feminism to animate collectivity in the arts. Divided into two sections, the first half attempted to parse out important arguments for wage rights and contestation. It was delivered as a sort of critical analysis, and as a launch for discussions. The second half outlined present actions in collectivity, and artists collectives that might offer fruitful models for placing arts in the service of community. 

Delivered as presentation/ discussions, the session followed a seminar format. Our hope, as moderators and presenters, was to foster inquiry and provide exemplary material. On a more personal level, as a historian, I found it difficult to bridge thinking and doing, and relied on speech for communication. Whether or not such a method was appropriate or even useful in such a setting, I am unclear. Also, I think online platforms close as many doors as they open. Presentations such as mine benefit from interaction and presence, both of which are restructured if not diffused by remote communication. I would rethink my contribution, were I to do this again.

Discussions ranged from close interpretations of the texts’ arguments to …really anything. It was lovely seeing the many directions that participants took.

The artist presenter, Caroline Woolard, who introduced us to arts collectives involved in political action provided a scaffold of hope and joyful dissent, making clear that artists made a number of major political actions and movements possible. The artist groups Caroline listed brought to mind the events of “Occupy wall street,” in which artists organized daily workshops in public squares, amplifying the political possibility and civic significance of public space, and ensuring accessibility to the arts.

I remain deeply interested in the question of the relationships of politics and arts, and why certain political actions are marked as more culturally significant than others, through the select use of the term “art”. As such, my goal was to simply think about the intellectual and creative frameworks within which collectivity could be an economic possibility, rather than focus on art as a catalyst for change.

Such a question has been with me through my journey through art histories, particularly given the privilege of value given to the art event, which empowers those with the language/desire to call things “art.” My ambivalence is reflective of my engagement with art and art history, which can be seen as reflections of what can be seen and understood as art. I struggle with reconciliations of economic value with more extensive conceptions of value, particularly given that art derives its cultural value (in the Modern sense) from its occlusion of economy.  

The questioning is neither skeptical nor cynical. Rather, it is hopeful. Particularly in experiences such as this, I see the value of placing politics within a broader field of life inclusive of dissent, inquiry, play, and refusal (as the pinch of dye that colors the water).

As a piece of the whole, this initial session set up some of the terms of inquiry and participation for the semester. I am grateful for the respect the participants showed each other, and their generosity in thinking out loud. There was a rhythm to the semester that was also present here. I take away from this experience the challenge to think about our rhythms of interaction, participation, moderation, and action. In these rhythms–in simple repetitive movements–one might reconceptualize agency, power, collectivity, and respect. 

HOSTS

Rashmi Viswanathan is the Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Hartford, a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow, and a Senior Fellow with the American Institute of Indian Studies. Her curation and scholarship focus on transnational movements in Modern and Contemporary Art.

Caroline Woolard is the Director of Research and Programs at Open Collective Foundation, a member of the think tank for the Creatives Rebuild New York guaranteed income program, an Assistant Professor at Pratt, a member of the and co-organizer of http://art.coop with Nati Linares. Since the financial crisis of 2007-8, Woolard has catalyzed barter communities, minted local currencies, founded an arts-policy think tank, and created sculptural interventions in office spaces. Woolard is the co-author of three books: Making and Being (Pioneer Works, 2019), a book for educators about interdisciplinary collaboration, co-authored with Susan Jahoda; Art, Engagement, Economy (onomatopee, 2020) a book about managing socially-engaged and public art projects; and TRADE SCHOOL: 2009-2019, a book about peer learning that Woolard catalyzed in thirty cities internationally over a decade. Woolard’s work has been featured twice on New York Close Up (2014, 2016), a digital film series produced by Art21 and broadcast on PBS. IG: @carolinewoolard