Sawyer Rose performs "The Carrying Stones" at Fort Mason

Sawyer Rose. Ties That Bind // 2016, 20 x 8 x 7 feet, 1000 handmade tiles, silver solder, copper, fiber, wireframe figure

Inspired to explore the “double burden” carried by women who work at paid jobs and are also responsible for domestic labor at home, Bay Area artist, Sawyer Rose is performing "The Carrying Stones" project at Fort Mason.

"Carrying Stones" is a series of a sculpture, performance and video works that portrays the physical, emotional, and practical effects of this issue.

Concurrent with this performance, her sculpture "The Ties that bind" is also on exhibit at Ft. Mason.

"The Ties That Bind "sculpture is a data visualization of hours of unpaid work that women do in the domestic sphere. It is made of 1000 handmade tiles, each representing an hour of time worked.

Women around the world do more unpaid housework than men – A recent study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the percentage of men and women who are involved in housework has barely moved since 2003, with 84% of women reporting doing 2.6 hours of unpaid housework daily vs. 64% of men who reported doing any housework at all, and those that did spent 2 hours a day. This is even more striking at a time when the US has nominated its first female presidential candidate.

While women in the US workforce are still struggling to break the glass ceiling, they’re also fighting to stop “scrubbing the tile floor” at home. Cooking, cleaning, and childcare responsibilities often still default to women, keeping them from advancing at work and in society.

Inspired to explore the “double burden” carried by women who work at paid jobs and are also responsible for domestic labor at home, Bay Area artist, Sawyer Rose debuted "The Carrying Stones" project at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture on Friday, September 23. "Carrying Stones" is a series of a sculpture, performance and video works that portrays the physical, emotional, and practical effects of this issue.

The project documents the lives of 47 women who are currently tracking the hours they spend on paid work, unpaid work, and other activities in a custom web application built for this project.

Ties That Bind (detail) // 2016, 20 x 8 x 7 feet, 1000 handmade tiles, silver solder, copper, fiber, wireframe figure

“No matter how far today’s women “Lean In,” it’s hard to be the CEO when they are also the head chef, janitor, and caregiver,” says Sawyer Rose. “The goal of this installation is to shine a light on an important issue in our society, and to be a catalyst for more dialogue and solutions to the problem.”

Learn more about the Carrying Stones project at: http://www.carrying-stones.com/ and https://fortmason.org/event/carrying-stones/. The sculpture will remain on display for two months on the south side of Building D next to the FLAX art & design store.


For inquiries & sponsorship opportunities:  sawyer@sawyerrose.com   415-806-2458


all images courtesy Sawyer Rose