On Necessary Work

The Architect’s Newspaper
May 2022

“Over six weekends in spring 2021, Adelita Husni Bey met with a cohort of eight unionized healthcare workers based in the US and Denmark for an online filmmaking workshop focused on their experiences working in hospitals throughout the first year of the pandemic. Guided by Husni Bey’s research into historic pandemic protocols, of particular focus for this cohort was the designation of their work as “essential.” How and why is the label “essential worker” brandished as a moralistic sword, as if people working as nurses or custodians or grocery clerks have chosen to sacrifice themselves to a higher order of social good – “remunerated,” as Angela Mitropoulos has reflected, “by applause”4? The workshop and resulting film create a space to ask: What realities of sacrifice, class oppression, and grief does the label “essential” veil?”

—Asa Mendelsohn