Time to visit the Watch City

 

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Oct 09, 2008 @ 12:03 AM

 

WATHAM –As an artist and master electrician, Susan Eisenberg makes electrifying connections between working construction and feminist labor rights.

Visitors won't need hardhats to view her installation, "On Equal Terms," at Brandeis University in Waltham. But they are likely to come away with a deeper appreciation of what it was like being among the first women to break into the building trades at union job sites.

Eisenberg, a Boston resident who writes poetry and has taught theater, said the exhibit celebrates the 30th anniversary of affirmative action legislation that opened up labor unions to women and minorities. Located at the Women's Studies Research Center at 515 South St., Eisenberg's installation finds art, polemic and poetry in the real-life stories of 30 pioneering women who fought for the right to earn a living despite the routine indignities thrown in their way. Step into the "Bathroom Shack," a lifesize reproduction of the ramshackle privies, complete with a door that won't close or lock and obscene graffiti, built only to satisfy laws guaranteeing "equal" treatment.

Or meet "Stella," Eisenberg's lifesize sculpted electrician, wearing her own overalls, her face composed of photos of women laborers and sporting a faux-diamond studded hardhat.

How many installations left you annoyed because a wannabe artist spread leftover projects on the gallery floor? This is different. Eisenberg, who helped wire the Westin Hotel, finds the same elegant utility in power tools that Shakers imbue in their furniture and makes political points with steps ladders and work gloves.