A spare pair of hands in Christchurch
This project evolved for an exhibition scheduled for Christchurch’s second winter after the earthquake; many people were still living in broken houses and finding life difficult. For two weeks I worked as a freelance volunteer, on a first-come-first-served basis, allowing people to choose the role that best suited their needs: Home Help/ Caregiver/Technical Writer/Temp/Artist.
I advertised my services extensively before and during the fortnight. The project was supported by a website freetime2012.wordpress.com, which featured CVs and references for each of the roles on offer.
The FreeTime toolkit (above), located in the gallery, was a set of service badges, one for each role. When I was out on a job, the corresponding badge was missing from the pegboard.
Over the fortnight I was booked from morning til night, operated in all the roles and, in response to popular demand, added a new one: Activist.
For a full account of the project, see the blog feetime2012.wordpress.com.
SARAH READ 