ARTIST STATEMENT
The Carrying Stones Project combines art and data visualization to jump-start public conversation about women’s work inequity. My large-scale data sculptures and works on panel communicate the diverse and distressing truths about American women’s unpaid/underpaid and unseen labor. Cooking, cleaning, childcare, eldercare, and community volunteerism statistically still default to women, which keeps them from advancing at work and in society.
These artworks document the physical, emotional, and practical effects of these imbalanced burdens. The artworks from The Carrying Stones Project profile women-identifying people of different ages, races, sexual orientations, occupations, and socio- economic statuses—building a broad yet touchingly intimate picture of the labor that underpins the complex fabric of our society. It is critical that, as a society, we come to a deeper understanding of the pervasive effects of gendered labor inequity. A gender-balanced workforce is better for productivity, innovation, worker happiness, and the economy as a whole, while a gender-balanced workload in the home leads to healthier partner and parent-child relationships.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sawyer Rose, FRSA, MRSS is a sculptor, installation and social practice artist. Throughout her career, Rose has used her artwork to shine a spotlight on contemporary social and ecological issues. Her work on The Carrying Stones Project addresses women’s work inequity and has been featured by the New York Times, Ms., and BUST. Sculptures and photographs from the project are currently touring universities, museums, and corporate sites across the United States. Rose has been a resident artist at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, Moulin à Nef in France, Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale Foundation, and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco. She has been awarded grants from The Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, The Creative Capacity Fund, The Awesome Foundation, and ArtistGrant.org.
Rose is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (London); a Member of the Royal Society of Sculptors (London); a Member of the Sculptors Guild (New York); and a Signature Member of National Association of Women Artists (New York). She is the Past President and current Communications Chair of the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (San Francisco). Born and raised in North Carolina, she holds a degree in Art History from Williams College in Massachusetts, and currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.
© Sawyer Rose