Wasted Labour (2015)
video installation, audio, looping

Winner of the Main Prize at the Nottingham Castle Open 2015.
Judges: Deb Covell, Rob Dingle, Kerry Harker, and Ben Woodeson.

Part of an ongoing series of works in which Ballard & Lewis explore the use of apparatus, designed for leisure and fitness, to reflect upon physical labour and its relationship to the body.

Here, they use rowing machines as a tool for performing choreographed movements for legs and feet. Their movements are accompanied by a hypnotic soundtrack created by their actions which evokes a nostalgic sense of industrial machinery and factory work.

Created in collaboration with artist Martin Lewis, in-residence at Summer Lodge, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.