The making of bread, etc.
(2019-2020)
Enjoy Contemporary Art Space

With thanks to the following bread makers: Raffaele Caroppo, Kushla Mercer, Renee Kirby, Marie Russell, Rhonda Whitehead at Kotare Trust, Siân Torrington, Hōhua Thompson, and Geoff and Helen Moore. Without your trust and generosity this project would not have been possible.

For The making of bread, etc. artist Zoe Thompson-Moore made bread to be shared at selected Enjoy events between May 2019 and August 2020, collaborating with others who bake bread at home for each iteration of the project.

The making of bread, etc. explored the various forms of labour that are at play in the (re)production of subjects and relationships, both in the gallery and the domestic realm. It took place on an “as-needed” and “as-possible” basis, eschewing a regular schedule in favour of what was possible—and what created the best outcomes—for the artist and her collaborators.

Bread is significant because of its relationship to shared and personal histories, including working-class consciousness, customs and practices before and during enclosure of the commons, the agricultural revolution, and later, the colonisation of Aotearoa. In eighteenth-century England, the making and consumption of bread was significantly affected by the move from production based on subsistence, common rights and use value, to a market imperative and production based on exchange for profit.

In her artistic practice, Thompson-Moore navigates the edges between creative practice and maintenance work, highlighting sites and lived experiences of reproductive labour. This is grounded in an understanding of unwaged, feminised work as being an essential part of capitalist social relations–the work that makes all other work possible. Maintaining the optimal conditions for bread-making requires time, attention, care and generosity. Thinking through these conditions of reproductive labour, the artist used the process of bread-making to generate new relationships, both with those she made bread with and with those who ate it.

The making of bread, etc. (PDF)
Sarah Hudson, Zoe Thompson-Moore