Invisible Labor
2011

Installation with vinyl floor decals, audio, and six color photographs
Initially made for GAM Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin

In a series of floor maps linked by dashed transit lines, Invisible Labor traces the arduous journey to Italy from Africa of undocumented workers, especially women. Working with Italian groups that assist trafficked women in the Turin area, Rosler obtained interviews with several migrants—women and men, sex workers and not. The interviews, read by actors, play from overhead speakers. Narrow vertical photographs depict the spaces of labor and life of the sex workers: a spot in a field outside the city; a client's car; a bucket toilet; and sparsely furnished rooms where some of these very young women live after leaving sex work.