Ruth Jones & Sue Withers

Playing with ideas of extending and refusing care, the artists have each selected works that explore the tension between gendered perceptions of care and femininity, and how acts of refusal can create contentious spaces of agency. 

The exhibition title pays homage to Janine Antoni’s performance (1993) which recognised, in turn, the “Maintenance Art” of Mierle Laderman Ukeles (1973). These feminist acts of sincere care were also gentle, but insistent, rebuttals of the prescriptions inherent to the performance of gender.