House: Shadow work, things, bodies

This research explores domestic space as a site where shadow work, bodily experience, and material objects intersect. “Shadow work,” coined by Ivan Illich (1980), refers to the unpaid, often invisible labor within the home, such as cleaning, cooking, and childcare, traditionally assigned to women. These tasks, though undervalued, are essential to household functioning and reinforce gendered divisions of labor. Moving beyond gender binaries, this study positions the body as a neutral site of labor and experience, highlighting how shadow work structures domestic life and power dynamics by examining how tasks, objects, spatial setups, and bodily movements influence these dynamics. It advocates rethinking domestic roles and spaces to challenge ingrained inequalities and reimagine the home as a more equitable social environment.

To illustrate these connections, I construct an interactive installation featuring an elastic mesh over a schematic apartment layout. The installation includes catalogs that explain things/objects related to shadow work, along with the associated actions, and are accompanied by 3D models of these objects. Participants are invited to place the models into the mesh based on their own experiences, linking the objects with specific actions and the domestic environments where these actions happen in their lives, guided by the catalogs. The apartment floor plan allows participants to connect the shadow work objects with both actions and spaces. As the models accumulate in the mesh, a layered aggregation forms, producing a sectional visual that shows the intensity and spatial distribution of shadow work within the home.