After Work: notes towards a work-less (playful) future.

This paper takes as its starting point the current situation in regards to labour and protest within the context of the U.K. specifically in relation to Higher Education. After more than six years of working on precarious contracts (whilst also engaged with part-time PhD research) across numerous Universities, the author recently moved onto a permanent contract. My aim is to think through the possible ways that art and performance might offer alternatives to a life filled with work. I begin by looking at some specific examples of where artists have reflected on work and labour. In doing so, I am then able to move into an analysis of the exhibition After Work by Célline Condorelli (with Ben Rivers and Jay Bernard) held at South London Gallery between March and June 2022 to suggest possible futures of work and the way that it is presented in practice, a future that might push away from our current culture of over work and one that might shift to finding more space for leisure and play. These suggestions open up possible small solutions to much bigger problems. In addition, I will also draw upon In the Meantime, Midday Comes Around an international exhibition exploring the changes to work over the last decade. The exhibition was on show at Kunsthalle Wien between November 2022 and May 2023.