'Push / Pull' – ‘The Working Day’

Special Event

23 May 2025

A double exposure image showing a person indoors adjusting a large checkered fabric, overlaid with the reflections of modern apartment buildings in a glass window. Luna Chan's face, partially obscured by the reflections, appears thoughtful and focused. The composition blends interior and exterior spaces, creating a layered urban scene.

Artist Luna Chan revisits Adelaide’s post-object art history in this public performance at ART POD.

When

ART POD

23 May 2025

8:00am to 10:00am

Access

Responding to Tony Kirkman’s The Working Week (1974), Chan reimagines the work through a contemporary lens – focusing on the ethics, rituals and emotional labour of domestic work. Across the morning, she’ll perform a series of quiet, care-based tasks inside the glass-walled ART POD, drawing attention to the often unseen rhythms of maintenance and everyday life.

Presented as part of She Also Performs – a project exploring feminist perspectives in the ACE archive.

Feature Image: Luna Chan (2025), 'The Working Day'.

Artists

Antony Abbracciavento,

Elyas Alavi,

Emiko Artemis,

Stephen Atkinson,

Troy-Anthony Baylis,

Alycia Bennett,

Jingwei Bu,

Patrick William Carter,

Luna Chan,

Allison Chhorn,

Amber Cronin,

Dylan Crismani,

Eleen Deprez,

Stephanie Doddridge,

Adam-Troy Francis,

Paul Gazzola,

Alex Grant,

Sasha Grbich,

Dominic Guerrera,

Ray Harris,

Aidan Hughes,

Matt Huppatz,

Heidi Kenyon,

Kirsty Martinsen,

Monte Masi,

VNS Matrix,

Shan Michaels,

Ariella Napoli,

Alexandra Nitschke,

Chris Reid,

Yasemin Sabuncu,

Fiona Salmon,

Cynthia Schwertsik,

Gabriella Smart,

Soundstream,

Trudy Tandberg,

Sione Teumohenga,

Sarah Tickle,

Henry Wolff,

Shirley Wu,

Robert Wyatt,

Jake Yang,

Yasser Yassin,

Shenshen Zheng,

Students from South Australian School for the Visually Impaired

Curators

Henry Wolff,

Danni Zuvela

Artist

Luna Chan

The Working Day – Luna Chan

What is the everyday…

By walking, my body paves a shadow on the ground.

By sweeping, I experience the surface and edges of the floor, cleaning and caring for a lifelong partner who untiredly sustains my weight.

By wiping the window, dust is removed to shorten my distance with the sun and the rain, the cityscape and the stars.

By caring for myself and caring for the things that care for me, the floor, the window, the clothes, the dishes, the body and the soul, I exist.

This is the everyday, my work every day.

一天的工作

什麼是每一天

用走的，走着走着，肉體的移動在地上留下痕跡。

用掃的，掃着掃着，掃出了地面的凹凸和邊際，撫摸着
承托我的大地。

用抹的，抹着抹着，抹走了灰塵，抹近了我與太陽、雨水、夜燈與星塵的距離。

存在而照顧自己，照顧身旁的種種：地板、窗戶、衣物、碗碟、
靈魂，肉體

—— 這便是每一天，我的工作。

About the Exhibition

Featuring a program of live, experiential, post-object and otherwise ‘non-haveable’ art encounters, and unpacking Adelaide’s leading role as the historical world centre of post-object art today, Push / Pull asks: What kinds of encounters are possible, when the shock of the new is a local tradition?

Support

Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) is supported by Create SA and Creative Australia.
This project is supported by City of Adelaide and History Trust of South Australia. Shan Michaels is supported by Arts Queensland.
Special thanks to project partners the South Australian School and Services for the Visually Impaired, and The Mercury.