Monthly Archives: January 2012

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

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name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

cleaning dust

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name: binna
age: 34
profession: director / curator
location: utrecht
weekday: tuesday
reference: domestic work as a suspension of other work at home riddled with anxiety (over the spent time and therefore less time for other work or experiencing catharsis (getting things done and making a proper home ground) it demands its own time and peace.

97 HOUSE MAIDS

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name: daniela
age: -
profession: artist
location: barcelona
weekday: wednesday
reference: 97 selected photographs showing groups of Peruvian high class people in daily domestic situations. In the background of each image one can see either a figure or a deletion of a domestic worker. All images have been collected from the social network site Facebook. Project by Daniela Ortiz.

97 HOUSE MAIDS

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name: daniela
age: -
profession: artist
location: barcelona
weekday: tuesday
reference: 97 selected photographs showing groups of Peruvian high class people in daily domestic situations. In the background of each image one can see either a figure or a deletion of a domestic worker. All images have been collected from the social network site Facebook. Project by Daniela Ortiz.

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

97 HOUSE MAIDS

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name: daniela
age: -
profession: artist
location: barcelona
weekday: thursday
reference: 97 selected photographs showing groups of Peruvian high class people in daily domestic situations. In the background of each image one can see either a figure or a deletion of a domestic worker. All images have been collected from the social network site Facebook. Project by Daniela Ortiz.

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by


name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

Invisible Domestic Labour: The Dusting Frenetically Series

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name: Lamis
age: 29
profession: HouseWerk Practitioner
location: London
weekday: Monday
reference: ‘I perceive that the work we raise is not unique, nor isolated, that the air around it constitutes other surfaces, other grounds, other ceilings [...] The work is not made only of itself: the outside exists. The outside shuts me in its whole which is like a room.’ Le Corbusier, Precisions, (New York: MIT Press, 1991) p.78.

feeding birds

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name: Luciana
age: 35
profession: photographer
location: Amsterdam
weekday: monday
reference: One of my passions are birds. If I had to choose other form of existence I would rather be a bird. I love to watch the birds. The winter came and I feel worried about them how difficult is to get food. I feed birds every day.

Leaving home

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name: pilar
age: 51
profession: architect
weekday: friday
reference: 1998, amsterdam, the NETHERLANDS. She is leaving home, but her only hand luggage is the shopping trolley, so she will go back. Another domestic excuse to occupy the public space.

beau travail

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name: rogier
age: 30
profession: graphic designer
location: amsterdam
weekday: thursday
reference: still from ‘beau travail’ (1999) by claire denis, 90 min. with denis lavant, michel subor, grégoire colin, richard courcet. this film focuses on an ex-foreign legion officer as he recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in the gulf of djibouti.

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

97 HOUSE MAIDS

Posted on by

name: daniela
age: 30
profession: artist
location: barcelona
weekday: monday
reference: 97 selected photographs showing groups of Peruvian high class people in daily domestic situations. In the background of each image one can see either a figure or a deletion of a domestic worker. All images have been collected from the social network site Facebook. Project by Daniela Ortiz.

Invisible Domestic Labour: The Dusting Frenetically Series

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name: Lamis
age: 29
profession: HouseWerk Practitioner
location: London
weekday: Monday
reference: “I perceive that the work we raise is not unique, nor isolated, that the air around it constitutes other surfaces, other grounds, other ceilings [...] The work is not made only of itself: the outside exists. The outside shuts me in its whole which is like a room.” Le Corbusier, Precisions, (New York: MIT Press, 1991) p.78.

gingerbread exchanged in conversation about child poverty – city centre

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name: Paula, Sam, Fionn, Oisin, Roma
age: 36, 34, 10, 1, 0
profession: artists, activists, architects, researchers, family, writers,
location: sheffield, uk
weekday: Saturday
reference: gingerbread. family time, Saturday morning, January 2011. 1 in 3 children living in poverty in the Uk. www.endchildpoverty.org.uk

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks I started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

97 HOUSE MAIDS

Posted on by

name: daniela
age: 30
profession: artist
location: barcelona
weekday: monday
reference: 97 selected photographs showing groups of Peruvian high class people in daily domestic situations. In the background of each image one can see either a figure or a deletion of a domestic worker. All images have been collected from the social network site Facebook. Project by Daniela Ortiz.

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

Invisible Domestic Labour: The Dusting Frenetically Series

Posted on by

name: Lamis
age: 29
profession: HouseWerk Practitioner
location: London
weekday: Monday
reference: “I perceive that the work we raise is not unique, nor isolated, that the air around it constitutes other surfaces, other grounds, other ceilings [...] The work is not made only of itself: the outside exists. The outside shuts me in its whole which is like a room.” Le Corbusier, Precisions, (New York: MIT Press, 1991) p.78.

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)

home economics

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name: jenny
age: 32
profession: producer
location: sant martí vell
weekday: tuesday
reference: Thoreau’s intention during his time at Walden Pond was “to conduct an experiment: Could he survive, possibly even thrive, by stripping away all superfluous luxuries, living a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions?” He thought of it as an experiment in “home economics”. Although Thoreau went to Walden to escape what he considered, “over-civilization”, and in search of the “raw” and “savage delight” of the wilderness, he also spent considerable amounts of his time reading and writing.

In Memory of Athiraman Kannan

Posted on by

name: trenton
age: 30
profession: publisher
location: london
weekday: wednesday
reference: On the 11th May 2011 news reached Jeddah that a man, later to named Athiraman Kannan, had the previous day, jumped to his death from the 147th floor of the world’s tallest building; the Burji Khalifa. From India, he came to Dubai to work. He cleaned the newly opened building. In an attempt to honour Athiraman Kannan, and his courageous call for attention to the lives of migrant workers, that afternoon I photographed what I had in previous weeks started to describe as a ‘pop out city’. These spaces were described to me by the domestic workers as an attempt at permanency, comfort and retreat in an always vulnerable and precarious life as a migrant worker. Unlike the families they worked for, whose life exists almost entirely behind these walls, their lives exist on the street, which is forging new notions ‘the public’ in city largely concerned with ‘privacy’. (Image taken the 11th May 2011 in Al Naeem, Jeddah.)