Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Laderman Ukeles Mierle (* 1939 in Denver, Colorado) is a living in New York City artist who is known for her feminist and service oriented themes of art.

Ukeles studied history and international studies at Barnard College and later she began her artistic training at the Pratt Institute in New York. In 1969 she wrote a manifesto entitled Maintenance Art- Proposal for an Exhibition ( in about maintenance art proposal for an exhibition ) directed against the role of housewives as wife in the kitchen and declared himself as a " maintenance artist ". Maintenance is the area of ​​human activity, to keep things going, like cooking, cleaning and child rearing for Ukeles. Her appearances in the 1970s included the cleaning of art galleries.

One of their most famous projects was Touch Sanitation (1970-1984), including shaking hands with more than 8,500 employees of the New York City Department of Sanitation and thanksgiving: "Thank you. Sure that you get New York City alive "