Good to Go, a commission for A Time of Waiting at Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, dovetails an exploration of waiting in relation to our studio practice, and within workplaces, with the hosting of a social space for settling into a 'temporality without tension'.

The project's conceptual foundation centres on the politics of waiting within a capitalist framework. For those labouring under present-day capitalism, the phrase 'time is money' is a constant refrain – yet waiting may be a way of subverting this notion, creating a pause that augments social time, making room for conversation or even for simply being without purpose, so that the present then swells with possibility.

Employers are always looking for ways to make the most of the temporal resources of their employees. When relationships get gnarly, 'work to rule', 'quiet quitting' and other ways of slowing down the pace occur, inverting the power relations inherent in waiting – those who are used to making others wait are now doing the waiting: for work to be completed, attitudes to change, or warnings of consequence to take effect.

Redundancy notices are a significant apparatus of the employer, forcing employees into the role of anticipation – waiting for the parameters, the list of names, a meeting, and the outcome of that meeting. Waiting to know the date or for the axe to fall. Time seems suspended. But this time is not passive: workers collectively wait, discussing terms and responses, engaging with unions and pushing back.

Good to Go also questions the notion that technology and technological advancements necessarily add value, given the limits of measuring value on the basis of saving time and increasing productivity, all the while contributing to an ever-mounting pile of superseded or intentionally redundant items.

As a socially-engaged event-based installation, Good to Go consisted of a studio space (a Public Share work site) and social space (for the public to use). The studio space housed 3D printers, a ceramic printer, a Public Share archive of objects, publications, ephemera, and slide show documentation, along with a functioning temporary studio.

Introducing a ceramic printer and a rack of 3D printers into our temporary studio, we found ourselves pitched into waiting for useable outputs. Processes take time, but paradoxically, they make time. Although technologically advanced, the 3D printers require human oversight and careful handling. This time between actions and outcomes has always formed a necessary, often non-negotiable part of our collective practice. Processes take time, but paradoxically, they make time.

Over the course of the exhibition, gallery visitors – particularly repeat visitors – could observe objects accumulating on the studio shelves. This included new slip-cast moulds of a ubiquitous workplace teacup produced using 3D-printed components and slip-cast in the studio space.

The social space tea station was open Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 3.30pm, with the public invited to take a break utilising our ‘Good to Go’ tumblers. On Saturdays, hours were 12.00pm to 4.00pm.

We made 52 Good to Go tumblers for the tea station along with tea stirrers stamped with various words and phrases in common use within workplaces and restructuring – ‘surplus to requirements’, ‘good faith’, ‘reasonable notice’, ‘stand down’, and ‘work in progress’.

The tumblers and stirrers were made from 20% Te Atatu Clay and 80% low-fired porcelain, with a clear glaze mixed with water collected from AUT’s WM Building Wet Lab and Digital Fabrication Lab temporary air conditioning unit between November 2024 and February 2025.