Normal Work examines sexuality, labour and representation. Self-portraits by Victorial domestic servant, Hannah Cullwick (UK) present her strength, muscles and dirty hands—embodiments of her ‘masculinity’ of which she was very proud. The images show her not only as a domestic servant, but also in gender, class and “ethnic” drag. From 1855 to 1902, Cullwick negotiated a long term sadomasochistic relationship with Arthur Munby; many of her photographs are testiments of their shared desire.
In 2007, Pauline Boudry (Swiss) and Renate Lorenz (Germany) created a video reinterpretation of Cullwick’s images entitled Normal Work. The video restages four historical photographs by Hannah Cullwick performed by artist Werner Hirsch (Germany). The historical photographs are placed in the context of contemporary drag performances and present a re-evaluation of labour. Seminal photographer Del LaGrace's Volcano series Daddy Boy Dykes serves as background imagery to Hirsch’s performance, while a sound track straight from Third Wave Feminism, Riot Grrrl, pierces historical references to the present.
Hannah Cullwick (1833-1909) was a Victorian era diarist and domestic servant, born and raised in Shropshire, UK. Cullwick’s diaries (published in sixteen volumes as The Diaries of Hannah Cullwick, Victorian Maidservant), provide detailed information on the lives of working-class Victorian servant women.
Pauline Boudry is a Berlin-based artist working in film, video and installation. She is interested in sexuality and work, and contextualizing her research in a post-colonial discourse. In 2003, she produced the documentary-fiction Copy-me, I want to travel in collaboration with Brigitta Kuster and Renate Lorenz. In 2004, Boudry made the video Sometimes you fight for the world, sometimes you fight for yourself. Pauline Boudry is a musician and the co-founder of the queer electronic band Rhythm King and her Friends. In 2006, she produced the film A Street Angel with a Cowboy Mouth, a diary on the European tour of her band.
