Faculty of Art

Cross-Disciplinary Art: Publications

Cleopatria Peterson (they/them)

THE BANK OF EMOTIONAL LABOUR

The idea of the bank of emotional labour came from desiring compensation. How can wecompensate for labour we do not consent to? This was very much in progress before thepandemic. Now that there has been time to take space from it I don’t like the idea of a bank.We should not try to replicate systems of power that continue to oppress us. What I have createdexists to catalogue accountability, but in its design the labour truly falls on the people it existsto serve. It’s an important step and opens up important conversations about monetary valueand labour. I wanted to create a bank that existed to support the people who need it most, but more importantly I wanted a world where people on the margins receive compensation. During this pandemic it is extremely clear that compensation is needed more than ever, but not through something fictitious. Institutions, such as banks, need to be held accountable and they need to pay up.