Much of Jessica Akerman’s oeuvre draws on her experiences of working as an administrator to support her creative practice. Her work engages with all aspects of labour, from its physical manifestations and tools to its behavioural sub-cultures and its relationship to how we navigate our environments. For example, she often uses Microsoft Excel to create large-scale digital drawings through a time-consuming process of colouring individual cells without coding or shortcuts. This process resembles her administrative work, as well as riffing on theories of employees “stealing” time from employers by doing unrequested tasks such as idly decorating a spreadsheet. Akerman’s practice disrupts our expectations and biases around labour, disconcertingly revealing the symbolic power of objects we use every day and challenging assumptions of how life intersects with employment.

— Anna Souter, https://annasouter.net/