Meadow Heights artist Kay Abude’s fascination with factory work began at a very early age.
Her mother worked in a Thomastown electrical factory and used to bring extra work home to increase the family’s weekly income.
“To help her out, we [Abude and her younger sister Eloine] would make test switches and exit signs,” says Abude, a former student of St Monica’s College in Epping.
The artist’s work – including her coming exhibition at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts – focuses on the machinations of a working factory.
Entitled Piecework, the exhibition forms part of the St Kilda gallery’s 2014 Innovators program and is part-funded by the state government through a VicArts grant program.
Abude, 28, has received $7000 to develop and produce her new work, which has artists and performers repeatedly creating mock gold bars and commenting on the value of artistic labour.
The exhibition is from June 27 to August 3 at Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, 26 Acland Street, St Kilda.
