Pouring Out, Pouring In. Mapping Women’s Work

Abstract

Ailie Rutherford is a visual artist, curator and the founder and artistic director of Feminist Exchange Network, a Glasgow based collective led by women and other marginalised genders which uses social and activist art to explore feminist economics in practice and in relation to women’s lived experience. Ailie’s feminist economic artworks have been shown internationally including Unbox festival (India), Institute of Network Cultures (Netherlands), Supermarkt (Germany), Rum 46 (Denmark), Van Abbemuseum (Netherlands), Sheffield DocFest (England), and Documenta 15 (Germany). In 2023, artist Ailie Rutherford was commissioned by the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) to create an exhibition and workshop series as part of the project ‘Women in multiple low-paid employment: pathways between, care and health’ (2020-2024). The academic project was the first to study the nature and extent of women’s multiple low paid employment (MLPE) in the UK. Ailie Rutherford led a series of workshops at GWL entitled ‘Mapping Women’s Work’. The resulting exhibition Pouring Out, Pouring In shared prints and other outcomes from the workshop series wherein the women involved mapped out their multiple paid and unpaid roles, thinking together about what a more equitable economic system might look like. This excerpt is from the Pouring Out, Pouring In exhibition booklet, co-authored by artist Ailie Rutherford along with lead researcher Louise Lawson, at University of Glasgow, and GWL curator Caroline Gausden. It describes the process and shares prints and other outcomes from the workshop series which visualized the complex nature of work and care for many women. Pouring out, Pouring In demonstrates how artistic work intersects with the Degrowth Agenda to collectively research and develop alternative socially just futures. The work is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social well-being.

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