John Vea: 96 degrees in the shade

96 degrees in the shade is a durational performance by John Vea that explores ideas of impermanence and itinerancy through the entanglement of labour and access to shelter. In the work, the artist disassembles and reassembles a mobile shoe-shine kiosk—commonly found in the streets of Busan—under the partial shade of a post as it moves throughout the course of a working day. The work acknowledges the often extreme conditions that labourers work in and raises questions about the politics of shelter: who has access to shade, and what might this shade obscure? The performance reveals how these tensions resonate within the increased precarity that global migrant workforces face: through the erosion of workers’ rights and the effects of climate change.