This new performance work by artist collective They Are Here draws on their own experiences of temping to address the rising ‘gig economy’, how different people can afford to spend their time and the increasingly blurred lines between work and leisure.
Visitors to Tate Exchange can interact with a daily rotation of temp workers. The temps’ work will include playing chess, video games and sharing music. In the context of an increasingly capitalistic society, this piece provocatively flips the saying ‘time is money’ to ‘money is time’.
Running parallel to this work is a system that observes and communicates the time visitors spend in the Tate Exchange space, developed by They Are Here in collaboration with software engineers.
They Are Here
(f. 2006) is a collaborative practice steered by Helen Walker and Harun Morrison. They are currently based in London and on the River Lea. They Are Here work across media and types of site, particularly civic spaces. Institutions they have developed or presented work include: CCA Glasgow, Furtherfield, Grand Union, Konsthall C (Stockholm), Southbank Centre, South London Gallery, Studio Voltaire and STUK (Leuven, Belgium).