Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights

19 September 2024 – 27 April 2025

Past

Free
Exhibition

A photograph of two people in an exhibition space looking at a large scale installation artwork. The artwork consists of the facade of a church with stained glass windows depicting sex workers and a pink neon sign of the of the words workers, workers, workers. In the background another person is watching a film screening and wearing headphones.

Wellcome Collection’s powerful new exhibition tells a compelling history of undervalued work and its effects on the body ★★★★
The Telegraph

Explore the profound impact of physical work on health and the body at our new major exhibition.

‘Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights’ delves into the stories of underrepresented workers and their rights within precarious and unsafe labour environments. From protests to healing practices, the exhibition unveils hidden histories of resistance and collective action.

Through a collection of over 150 items, including historical objects, contemporary artworks, films and new commissions, we invite you to witness the interconnectedness of working practices across the globe and the enduring fight for workers’ rights.

You can also watch a short video inspired by the exhibition. In this video, curator Cindy Sissokho explores how plants became a source of healing and resistance for enslaved communities.

Exhibition highlights

A photograph of two people looking at a display case of archive material which includes posters, photographs and leaflets relating to sex work. In the background are large photographic prints. — 1 of 11
Where and how sex workers do their job is under constant surveillance. It is not illegal to buy or sell sex in the UK, but peripheral activities such as kerb-crawling, managing sex work and soliciting in a public place are criminalised. This section highlights campaigns by The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM). They are both UK activist collectives who work to highlight the dangers that sex workers are exposed to.

A photograph of four people sitting around a table within a large scale art installation. There is a black and white film being projected on to the table and across their hands. They are surrounded by a curved wall covered with a textile wallpaper depicting photographic representations of hands, lit by purple LEDs. — 2 of 11
‘Care Chains (Love will continue to resonate)’ is a multisensory installation. It was created by the artist Moi Tran, who worked with the UK-based organisation The Voice of Domestic Workers and other creative collaborators. The footage shows 12 women who are domestic workers using percussive body movements to channel love, joy, collective resistance and the release of tension. Through film, light, sound and vibration, Moi Tran asks us to reflect on how we provide care.

A photograph of two people in an exhibition space looking at a large scale installation artwork. The artwork shows the inside of a church with stained glass windows and a film being projected in the centre. There are also wooden pews with ceramic works on display. — 3 of 11
In the middle of our section on The Street you’ll find ‘Money Makes The World Go Round’, a multimedia installation by artist Lindsey Mendick that honours a global history of sex work from antiquity to today. The architecture of the church creates a shelter for community support and solidarity. It includes 62 ceramic money boxes to signify the income that sex work provides, along with a filmed sermon and stained-glass windows. It was made in collaboration with Sex Workers’ Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM) members Juno and Polly and the author Mendez.

A photograph of a large scale work depicting workers and mosquitoes embroiderd onto a mosquito net. This is accompanied by a close-up detailed view of one section of the work showing a group of mosquitoes. — 4 of 11
In her work entitled ‘Mosquito Shrine’, Vivian Caccuri focuses on the mosquito, an insect that carries deadly infectious diseases. In the 16th century the mosquito was transported on slave ships from Africa to Brazil and has since spread across the Americas. In this intricate embroidered work, you’ll see human-sized mosquitos thriving in the human-made plantation landscape. Here, Caccuri invites us to reconsider our relationship with the mosquito, as an insect also affected by histories of colonialism.

A photograph of a display of colour photographic prints, they are arranged in clusters and depict plantation workers in Bangladesh. — 5 of 11
Today, people still work on plantations around the world. ‘Dark Garden’ is an ongoing photographic series by artist Md Fazla Rabbi Fatiq that documents the impact of plantation working conditions on workers’ health in Bangladesh. Tea gardens were created in the Bangladeshi region of Sylhet in 1854 by British merchants. The beautiful landscape conceals the harsh and unsafe working conditions for tea workers. He reveals a worker’s hand crushed by a machine for processing tea leaves and an eye injured by harmful pesticides.

A photograph of three people sitting on chairs looking at a large film projection. The film show a satellite map with overlayed graphical information regarding pollution. — 6 of 11
Along the Mississippi River in the US state of Louisiana, a heavily industrialised ‘Petrochemical Corridor’ overlays a territory formerly known as ‘Plantation Country’. In the region’s majority-Black communities, residents – descendants of people historically enslaved on the same land – breathe some of the most toxic air in the country and suffer one of the highest risks of cancer and other serious health conditions, yielding the regional name ‘Death Alley’. As industrial development pollutes their air, it also threatens the burial grounds of their ancestors, exposing the continuum of environmental racism in the region.

A photograph of a framed black and white photographic print depicting prisoners on a treadmill being watched by prison guards. — 7 of 11
In the 19th century, the British prison system was directly inspired by the American “separate system” — the principle of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement. Hard, unproductive work was used repeatedly for the sake of punishment and passing time, with direct consequences on the mental and physical health of incarcerated people. The treadwheel was monitored by the slide rule – a controversial tool that enabled prison governors to set daily productivity targets for the number of steps per prisoner per hour.

A photograph showing four photographic prints depicting portraits of incarcerated women displayed in white frames, against a background of wooden slats. — 8 of 11
Sara Bennett is a former public defender who photographs women sentenced to life in prison. Her work draws attention to the problems of mass incarceration in the USA, where over 200,000 people are serving life sentences. In the series ‘Looking Inside’, the women – all convicted of homicide – are documented at their place of work in prison. Sara Bennett asked the women, “What do you want to say to the outside world?” The portraits and accompanying words reveal the women’s experience and humanity, and challenge the viewer to think about the laws and policies that lock people up, sometimes for ever.

A photograph of two people looking at a series of framed artworks. The works are black and white photographs of buildings accompanied by architectural plans. — 9 of 11
In the project ‘Maids Room’, Daniela Ortiz compares the size of domestic workers’ rooms with other rooms in luxurious upper-class houses in Lima, Peru. Using complete construction plans from architectural magazines and the firms that develop these homes, the work outlines the reality of “service architecture”, the living space provided for domestic workers. Ortiz highlights the difference between the size of the rooms cared for by the domestic workers and the space in which they live.

A photograph of a sculptural installation called washerwoman, the sculpture is made of beeswax, resin and brown cloth and is adorned with wooden clothes pegs. — 10 of 11
Inspired by a portrait taken by the photographer J W Cleary in Jamaica in 1890, Shannon Alonzo produced this work in her grandmother’s house in Trinidad. She reflects on the hidden histories of her ancestors’ work as washerwomen and its impact on the body. The materials of the sculpture depict the effects of hot water and harsh soap on the subject’s hands, while the body’s decay mirrors the disappearance of the occupation itself.

A photograph of a display of colour photographic prints, they are arranged in clusters and depict staged portraits of domestic cleaners and abstract images of the body. They are displayed against a wall of aged textured wallpaper. — 11 of 11
In her work, Kelly O’Brien documents the working-class women in her family, playfully exploring the performance of low-paid cleaning work. Moving from intimate portraits to staged photography of her mother and grandmother, she also explores her own identity as a third-generation Irish immigrant. Concerned with class, politics and gender, O’Brien’s work questions the effect of work and working-class life on the body.

Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights

Exhibition highlights

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