From gnarled hands to murder: the show exposing the world’s worst workplaces

Hard Graft, an unsparing new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, showcases artworks that respond to employee exploitation, from the ruined hands of a washerwoman to the lung-damaged workers of Death Alley

On my way to Hard Graft, a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London, I sat beside an employee with a lanyard round her neck like a chain whose exhortatory instruction read, “straightforward, purposeful, collaborative behaviours” – but to what end I had no idea. Jobs come with added sententiousness these days, as employers burden workers with the requirement to be “passionate” about whatever job they apply for. Pret recruitment says: “We hire passionate people and teach them to make sandwiches.” When I worked in a primary school kitchen outsourced to a catering conglomerate, every wall was posted with an instruction: “Always happy, never sad.” Your labour is not enough. They want your passions too.

That spirit of oppression infuses Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights. Wellcome shows stand out for blending new art with social, welfare and scientific explorations, melding forms and themes. This one shines a harsh light on physical work, with a wealth of artists’ symbolism beside graphic realities about the effects of hard labour on body and mind. Here, too, are chronicles of resistance to servitude, stories of revolt by oppressed workers. This turns a history of undervalued work and undervalued workers into tales of human defiance. Brief rebellions may not change much, beyond the protesters themselves, but artists here celebrate those upstart moments.

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