Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance and/as (Art) Work
Considering the literature on feminist militancy and “domestic labor” of the late 1960s and early 70s from the perspective of Western visual culture, the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles is undoubtedly a central figure. Surprisingly, however, her works have rarely been read through the lens of the international Wages for Housework movement. This essay proposes to read Ukeles’ cultural activism and work through the writing and political organizing of Silvia Federici, who also distanced herself from previously dominant and at times sectarian feminisms to articulate a pointedly (post-)autonomist feminism as a political project. The author is trying to grasp and describe the truly radical and imperative position that Ukeles activated, and continues to “maintain.”