SweatSHOP / Alexia Mellor (2012)

SweatSHOP was an interactive, performative installation using humour and play to critique and subvert corporate practices.

Under the guise of corporate consultancy firm ‘Mellor Management’ and using a central Manchester shop window as her temporary headquarters, Mellor attempted a test of endurance: cycling on a bicycle attached to a small generator powering a LED “SHOP” sign.

After the athletic feats accomplished at the London 2012 Olympics, SweatSHOP aimed to sensitise us to the corporatisation of sport and the failure of many companies’ labour policies through the artist’s own physical trials.