In response to the invisible work of care that takes place inside a museum, Toronto artist jes sachse performs a conversation with any bodies who may move through the space.

For one hour each week, this physical intervention seizes a stage to ask a question that a public institution may prefer to be asked privately: is this accessible?

According to the artist:

"Accessibility, when carried out by institutions, centres the institutions: as they are, as they have been. Rather than seeking structural change, they merely offer adaptations. But an adaptation is a staged physical intervention as well. It is engaging in communicating afterthought. Consider a ramp located at the back of a building. Consider the time it takes to approach this ramp. Consider the subtraction from the categories of Physical Energy, Dignity, and Pride. Consider the addition of entering and leaving. Consider the multiplication of days.

If you could speak to the afterthoughts, what would you say?

The act of speaking to the afterthoughts is the conversation of care initiated by the artist. It is work called anticipation. A calculation of the necessary adjustments that a body must make when speaking to afterthoughts. Whose job is it to perform this labour? How many hours are they employed? How are they remunerated?

‘To be Frank’ stretches the conventional 8-hour work day across a duration of 8 weeks in order to embody the demand of repetition, time, loss, and the image we see of labour itself.”

For more information on the artist and their work, visit jessachse.com

#TOBEFRANK