Labouring For Love
Solo Exhibition
Curated by Ahmed Hassan Shawky
Installation, Photography, Soft Scultpures, Text, Video
ARD Art Institute
2025


The Second Shift of a Ladybug
A found photo, dimensions: 5.60 × 2.90 M.
From a photographic series of the same name,
2024
Full project is here.
A found photo, dimensions: 5.60 × 2.90 M.
From a photographic series of the same name,
2024
Full project is here.

What Is More of Eight Legs and Hands?
A soft textile sculpture, executed and developed in collaboration with textile designer Alaa Abo El Goud.
2025
While Being an Octopus
A multi-channel performance video, presented in a continuous loop in HD.
Duration: (2:38 min / 2:20 min).
The full project (4 channel videos) is here.
2019.
A soft textile sculpture, executed and developed in collaboration with textile designer Alaa Abo El Goud.
2025
While Being an Octopus
A multi-channel performance video, presented in a continuous loop in HD.
Duration: (2:38 min / 2:20 min).
The full project (4 channel videos) is here.
2019.




Continuous Negotiations
An interactive sculpture made of wood. Diameter: 130 cm
2025
An interactive sculpture made of wood. Diameter: 130 cm
2025

"Laboring for Love" is the first solo exhibition by artist Rania Atef, part of an extended art project she has been working on for six years, focusing on the themes of motherhood and care. In this exhibition, Rania explores the complex relationship between artistic and domestic work, highlighting the intertwining of her roles as both a mother and an artist. Through this lens, daily practices transform into artworks that reflect the intersection of different, often invisible forms of labor.
The project reshapes the boundaries between the home and the gallery, bringing domestic practices into the exhibition space. It sheds light on the importance of recognizing everyday efforts that often remain outside public and institutional acknowledgment, whether in the artistic or social realm.
The exhibition also delves into the roles of caregiving and unpaid labor as acts driven by love, while simultaneously questioning the economic and caregiving systems that rely on this hidden effort for their sustenance. It examines the relationship between professionalism and hobbyism, as well as the tension between resisting caregiving roles and acknowledging their significance.
Rather than documenting a personal life, the exhibition offers a subjective perspective on the intersections of domestic and artistic labor, It presents an experience where the two realms merge, urging us to reflect on the boundaries of the visible and invisible.. It may also serve as an attempt to commodify caregiving labor through artistic spaces, circumventing the larger economic system. The exhibition poses the question: Can artistic labor play this role while being subject to the economies of (in)visible labor?
The exhibition includes a parallel program featuring film screenings, readings, and discussions on labor and care, curated by art curator and researcher Ali Hussein Al-Adawy.
Video by Sanabel Badreldeen.


My Dear Home | Subtitles from The Movie I love
Seven text excerpts from the film "Empire M" (10 × 15 cm).
2024
Seven text excerpts from the film "Empire M" (10 × 15 cm).
2024
Love is a Capitalist emtion.


Conversations in a Beehive
An installation featuring a dining table displaying ten notebooks showing texts and ink drawings. Along with a soundtrack.
2020
Full project is here.
An installation featuring a dining table displaying ten notebooks showing texts and ink drawings. Along with a soundtrack.
2020
Full project is here.