Gallery 2

Break Even Point

Benita Laylim, Sophia Cai, Daniel Sherington, Amy Prcevich

The break-even point occurs when the total cost of a venture is equal to the total earnings. Arriving at break-even means there is neither a profit nor a loss: it's a point of equilibrium. Identifying this point provides a metric for cost-benefit analysis, it's a way to locate value, a way to answer the question, is it worth it? 

Where does this point occur when we frame our practice as work or our work as practice? We make adjustments and concessions to include intangible, non-financial benefits as a form of earning instead of income. We’re doing it for the love of it, which we know is a highly liquid asset, or maybe there is some kind of spiritual currency that we can capitalise on by participating in art making and facilitation. 

Artists often moonlight as arts workers, though when preparing tax returns, it is clear which of these is the primary occupation, and it is rarely the one that takes place in the studio. 

So often, discourse about art as work, work in the arts, is antagonistic. It seems as though there are very few benefits, financial or otherwise, to working in the arts, or positioning art as work, so why do it? Where do we break-even when the contribution is human capital, and the earnings are so rarely financial?

Break-even point is a speculative exhibition exploring labour in art, looking at what happens at the intersection of the arts worker/artist experience, and wondering what makes it worth it?

This project is developed by Firstdraft.