The Premium Economy series is a set of interactive furniture sculptures by Swedish artist, Anna Uddenberg, that bring to life her vision of office furniture. These sculptures are activated at exhibition spaces by trained models who sit-on, mount or perch on the sculptures in office attire, as if enacting a full workday. Performers involved in the Premium Economy activations are always feminine presenting, passing for what society would traditionally understand to be a ‘woman’.
As the sculptures in Premium Economy put performers in uncomfortable poses at long-hours, Uddenberg asks their viewers to question how gender identity and perception affects a person’s experience of today’s workforce. The pieces criticize how gender biases more likely than not mean that feminine presenting individuals are handed the short end of the stick at the workplace, facing everything from the gender pay gap to discrimination on the basis of gender and sex. This is why Premium Economy by Anna Uddenberg is relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Decent Work And Economic Growth and Gender Equality.
In 2022, women in the European Union earned almost 13 percent less than men. This means that for every 100 euros that a man or masculine presenting person earns, a woman would earn only 87.3 euros, requiring them to work an additional 1.5 months to make up for the difference. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, the Harvard Business Review has found that on top of the gender pay gap, women face additional hurdles when attempting to climb the corporate ladder, which includes: unfair assumptions of their capacity to balance work with personal affairs, unhelpful attention from higher ups, and unequal access to promotion opportunities.
With all this in mind, it is as if the whole economy has been rigged to function against women and feminine presenting people. Hence, the creation of Uddenberg’s Premium Economy, a visualization of how today’s workforce works against women and feminine presenting people, forcing them to quite literally bend and twist their bodies out of shape, all to catch up with their male counterparts.
Anna Uddenberg’s Premium Economy series challenges viewers to confront the persistent gender biases in today’s workforce. Through interactive sculptures that position feminine-presenting performers in uncomfortable and distorted poses, Uddenberg highlights the systemic inequities women and feminine-presenting individuals face, from wage gaps to limited promotion opportunities. By forcing these performers into exaggerated physical forms, Uddenberg visually critiques the way society demands women to “twist” themselves to fit into male-dominated work structures.
Find out more about Premium Economy and other pieces by Anna Uddenberg on her Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler artist page or Instagram @filet_minion_thong.