No days off
Driven by the counter-cultural fervour of the 1960s and ’70s, new-age spiritual movements and the contemporary version of woo-woo, Wellness have served as substitute dogma to religion and mainstream culture. This hippie self-care, commoditised and widely disseminated today, is recognisable by a mix of signifiers: an assemblage of mistranslated references from ‘Eastern’ cultures, pseudo-scientific diet strictures, and self-obsessed fitness culture. And, while self-care has gained traction as a practice aimed to support alternative life practices, it has also been usurped by social media influences, cultish fitness leaders and global sport advertising campaigns for capitalist gains.
No days off examines these concepts by appropriating tropes from CrossFit ideologies and mixing these with motivational quotes and modernist sculptural forms. The installation reconsiders the problematic self-obsessed fitness and self-care culture to engage with new ways of communality and empathy for others in an attempt to examine the frailties of the human condition.
