Sawyer Rose: The Carrying Stones Project

The Art Department of the University of Redlands is pleased to present The Carrying Stones Project, an exhibition of artwork by San Francisco-based artist Sawyer Rose. The show opens to the public on Tuesday, February 14 and runs through Sunday, March 12 at the University Art Gallery. Everyone is welcome to attend the opening reception on Wednesday, February 15 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. An Artist Talk with Sawyer Rose will begin at 5:15 p.m.

The Carrying Stones Project is an ongoing series of sculpture, data visualization, and social practice artworks that explores women’s work inequity in its many forms. Cooking, cleaning, childcare, eldercare, and even community volunteerism often still defaults to women, keeping them from advancing at work and in society. This project documents the physical, emotional, and practical effects of these imbalanced burdens.

Focusing on the individual, Sawyer uses real-life work data collected from female-identifying workers from all walks of life to create data visualization sculptures and portrait pairs. Each participant records her work hours, paid and unpaid, and the data is then translated into a readable sculpture that helps viewers better understand the vast number of hours the woman logs at her paid job and at her unpaid home or volunteer job. Once a data sculpture is complete, the woman has a photographic portrait taken while lifting and carrying her sculpture, bearing the burden of her hours in a real and physical way.

Sawyer’s data visualization works on panel take a broader look at gendered work inequity. These wall works help explain some of the most hotly debated (and often misunderstood) labor issues. Examples include the gender pay gap, unequal representation of women in leadership positions, and the “double burden” of women in the workforce who are also caregivers.