Midissage: I can't I work

Anne Schmidt
I can´t I work
22.08. - 05.09.2024

Donnerstag
29. August 2024
Bar und Musik sind
on

I can’t I work is not art. I can’t I work is exploitation.
I can’t I work is the sum of all my bread-and-butter jobs, the daily strain between earning a wage and the necessity to survive.
I can’t I work is everywhere—‘you know it, right?’ I can’t I work is the tiredness in my eyes.
This work rebels.
Anne Schmidt is doomed in the attention economy.
I can’t I work is trapped in the endless loop of wage labor, in the routine of survival:
a chain of jobs that has accompanied me since I was 15 years old.
Anne Schmidt accompanies me.
It is a retrospective of works that were never intended for exhibitions, but were created as an escape from the monotony of daily work life.
It’s the countless plates I performed painting for Gmunden Ceramics,
while memorizing a text for a performance on the side to avoid completely freezing up,
while simultaneously painting other plates to keep the performance going.
This name resists. Anne Schmidt wants to be nobody. Invisible because always present.
I can’t I work is the income that is not an income. It is the certificates I issued to myself to make my artistic work equal to wage labor.
It is the idea of creating a hand-painted plate to match a random flatshare cup while performing branded ceramic painting in a pop-up store.
Anne Schmidt is doomed in the attention economy. Anne Schmidt is the same path to work as from work:
too tired to even look up. Anne Schmidt is the name of the masses, the anger of a spectator who thought
I was desecrating a tradition and my cynical response of painting a swastika on the back for cash.
Anne Schmidt is not a name. Anne Schmidt is uniformity. Anne Schmidt is John Smith is Maggie Lee is Christiana Quales.
Anne Schmidt is universal. Anne Schmidt is the same path to work as from work:
invisible because always present. I can’t I work is my body on strike as a painting.
I can’t I work is a system that weaves art and labor inseparably, a creation of exhaustion.
Anne Schmidt exhausts herself to exhibit what we are used to.
Anne Schmidt is a system.