A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist" (2025) traces the decades-long practice of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, a pioneering artist who focused on marginal, unpaid, and feminine labor. The film covers her career from her 1969 "CARE" manifesto, through her role as artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, to her first retrospective at the Queens Museum in 2017. It highlights her critique of art-world gender biases and her efforts to recognize discounted labor in all fields.
The documentary matters because it brings wider public attention to an artist who operated largely beneath notice for decades, using performance and photography to spotlight maintenance work. It also arrives near the Duchamp exhibition at MoMA, underscoring Ukeles's influence from conceptual art while challenging its male-dominated narratives. The film's release helps cement Ukeles's legacy as a key figure in feminist and socially engaged art, and demonstrates how documentary can effectively convey performance-based art.