Woman’s Work (2017)

Referencing Virginia Woolf’s 1929 feminist text A Room of One’s Own, this 2017 series of portraits by Eugenia Lim continues an ongoing project. Woman’s Work surveys the contemporary state of female financial, creative and sexual independence in the 21st century and the ambiguities and challenges women still face in defining their identity within domestic, professional and social spheres. At a time when feminism is being co-opted by celebrities – from Beyonce to Ivanka Trump (whose Women Who Work ‘initiative’ and book targets the super-affluent and power-class woman and includes, as Jia Tolentino says, mostly “artless jargon” such as ‘All women benefit immeasurably by architecting their lives’ and inspirational quotes you might find by Googling ‘inspirational quotes’.”). Lim’s project seeks to playfully subvert and reclaim the pejorative term woman’s work by presenting every day feminism at work, in its own habitats.

This series was originally shown as part of Unfinished Business: perspectives on art and feminism at ACCA, curated by Max Delany, Annika Kristensen, Paola Balla, Julie Ewington, Vikki McInnes and Elvis Richardson.

Installation images by Andrew Curtis: Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2017–18

All other images by Eugenia Lim.