Maria Eichhorn’s 5 Weeks, 25 Days, 175 Hours (2016): Subjectivity and Time in Post-Fordist Labor

Abstract

In this essay, Maria Eichhorn’s 2016 intervention at Chisenhale Gallery 5 weeks, 25 days, 175 hours serves as a foundation to examine the figure of the artistic worker in the Post-Fordist context. Departing from an art-historical analysis of Eichhorn’s gesture of closing the gallery and giving the staff free time, I explore the new subjectivity of the worker from a bio-political perspective, dwelling on the notion of self-precarization. An analysis of Eichhorn’s work shows how the neoliberal worker has been revealed as a subject who takes responsibility for her job insecurity and allows work to penetrate her private life. I argue that Eichhorn’s gesture acts as a reminder of how, as a consequence of the development of the new model of labor, every aspect of life is occupied by the imperative of productivity, complicating traditional ways of resistance.