As the New York City Department of Sanitation’s official artist-in-residence, Mierle Laderman Ukeles has challenged perceptions of labor and the city’s workers for over 30 years. She began her work long before designer Heron Preston’s sanitation-uniform show this Fashion Week, documenting a range of labor practices from everyday domestic chores to blue-collar public-service jobs.
In subversive performances, unusual installations, and mixed-media works (like trash-dump sculptures), Ukeles often explores cultural status and female identity. A new exhibit opening this Sunday at the Queens Museum showcases her oeuvre, which spans over 50 years. It accompanies the book Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art, published by Prestel earlier this month.
Click ahead to see photographs from the book and Ukeles’s various works, including street sweepers as performance art.
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Sanitation Celebrations: Grand Finale of the First NYC Art Parade, Part I: The Social Mirror, 1983. Created in collaboration with DSNY.
Vuilniswagendans (City Machine Dance), May 15, 1985. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Photo: Jannes Linder.
Sanitation Celebrations: Grand Finale of the First NYC Art Parade, Part III: Ceremonial Sweep, 1983. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, photo: Paula Court.
Touch Sanitation Performance, 1979-1980. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.
Touch Sanitation Performance, 1979-1980. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Photo: Marcia Bricker.
Touch Sanitation Performance, 1979-1980. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Photo: Robin Holland.
NYC Triumphal Maintenance Arch: Glove Arch Honoring Sanitation Workers in Memory of John DeLury, 1983. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.
Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Inside, July 23, 1973. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.
Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Inside, July 23, 1973. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.
Touch Sanitation Performance, 1979-1980. Courtesy of Ronald Feldman Fine Arts. Photo: Marcia Bricker.
