A mandra is a circular surface over which seeds and grains are threshed to remove the husk; in Djerbian society, the task of husking is assigned to women at home. This video work considers the historically invisible nature of women’s labor in the household, and how society has valued the role of women over time. While the development of automation and contemporary conversations about uncompensated labor are reframing the organization of socially reproductive labor in high income societies, for most of history, we have categorized socially reproductive work as women’s work: the challenges of work are the challenges of the home, and the challenges of the home inescapably fall on the shoulders of women.

This stop-motion video removes the laborer; barley and lentils move around the mandra directed by an invisible hand. The grains are miraculously kinetic without the visible effort of a person performing any task: labor is performed in the absence of a waged laborer. The grains are joined by a shefshari, the Judeo-Tunisian pronunciation of safsari, a traditional veil made of white silk or cotton. Typically worn by women, the shafshari serves as a traditional covering for women’s bodies, similar to the historical  function of the Indian saree, said to have been brought to North Africa from Kerala by Jewish olive oil and spice merchants in 7th or 8th century Mahdia. The shefshari shown in this video belonged to Chaddad’s late paternal great-grandmother Woukhiya Chaddad of Hara Kbira. 

At the beginning of the video, a man is shown cleaning up at the grains with a broom and dustpan, performing compensated labor for which he is credited. 

Credits: Kamel Chater as male cleaner.

Photos by Zied Haddad

Curatorial text by Katherine Li Johnson

Video installation, aspect ratio 4:3, length 1:10 minutes, one video projector

Lala Khadria Museum, 2022