Objects of desire: Sexwork and its objects

The 'Objects of Desire Collective' is made up of artists, anthropologists and sexworkers who take the lead in curating the collective's activities. This work of managing and moving the objects in relation to its imbrication in a network of relations is part of the labour of sexwork. Through specifically presenting objects alongside their narratives we focus on a specific moment in the life of the object, one in which it is involved in the labour of sexwork, to assert precisely how sexwork is work. The collective's name, 'Objects of Desire,' is a purposeful play on the idea of what the object is in our shows. It was a focus on the processes through which objects and subjects become objects and subjects that allowed the labours to interject into the representational economy surrounding sexwork and sexworkers. The objects presented in the exhibitions were not passive representations of aspects of sexwork, but active mediators of relations that likewise demand to be dealt with.