Pluto is not a planet, astronomers have discovered, but, sad as we are to announce it, pigs are not quite yet to be found flying above our heads. One day every constant in our daily lives will no doubt be turned upside down; for the time being, artist Jemima Burrill is trying to make it happen in her own personal way, making delicate, intimate videos and photographs that hit you over the head with their open investigation and shaking up of power relations assumed to be fixed.
Last December, Burrill (b. 1970), a 2006 graduate of the RCA's sculpture programme, showed cleaner (2004) in Amnesty International's 'Imagine a World' exhibition in London, part of its Stop Violence Against Women campaign.
Cleaner, 2004, still
The camera follows a maid going through her domestic chores in an unusual way - polishing wooden floors, tables and every other element of the English house with not just her hands and rags, but with her entire clothed body, be it her feet, stomach, crotch, breasts or her very breath and tongue; at one point the maid even uses her nose to snort up dust off a mantelpiece, and uses her cropped hairdo to scrub a toilet. The absurdist, physical nature of the ritual is tempered with a beautiful choreography, one that hints at the artist's interest in dance and performance, and humour. After all the work is so sensually done, the cleaner dryly puts on her coat and leaves the house - leaving the viewer to reconsider power, labor, and gender structures in the wake of wondering what it is that cleaners actually do, and why they do it. Burrill's work are infused with feminist references galore - in an early video, mouthwash, a woman places her underwear in a man's mouth, and you won't imagine what happens next, but it involves washing powder and hot breath.. Burrill's angle is both bluntly rebellious and magical, making her political activism truly, refreshingly subversive.
Having recently shown some of her videos in at George Polke Presents' temporary space, Burrill's work can be seen at a solo show of her newest video and sculptural installation work at the Julian Scott Memorial Gallery in Vermont, opening today and running through 17 September (reception: 31 August, 3 pm), where the artist has been conducting a residency.
Other recent works by Jemima Burrill:
Moving South, 2005, photograph
Tattoo, 2003, photograph
The Little Girl who Lived Down the Lane, 2005, photograph
After Thought, 2005, photograph
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