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The Soft Labor Questionnaire: Julia Dault

Welcome to Soft Labor, the namesake publication of Soft Labor, a strategic consultancy for organizations, designers, and the culture industry led by Sarah Hromack-Chan. Soft Labor is a publication about creative labor—what it is, what it looks like, and how it has and will continue to change. Did someone forward you this publication? Subscribe, read our archives, or email us at info@softlabor.biz. 

The Soft Labor Questionnaire

The Soft Labor Questionnaire is simply that: A brief series of questions we’ve asked comrades in the field to answer about their own working experiences.

Today's respondent is Julia Dault. Julia Dault is an artist whose paintings and sculptures have been featured in the New Museum’s triennial and the Marrakesh and Gwangju Biennales, with group shows at institutions including MOCA Toronto, MCA Chicago, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Her work is held in major collections, including the Guggenheim, LACMA, the AGO, and the National Gallery of Canada. Based in Toronto, she is the founder of Hot Pizza Studio and co-directs the fashion project Signs Point to Yes with Hannah Whitaker.

Tell us about the first job you ever did for money. 

I worked at a family-run clothing store where the clothes were all stacked in rigid, color-coded piles, like stacks of rainbow books—to this day, I am a master folder.

Is your current work related to what you studied in school? If so, how? Or, how not? 

Yes. I did my BA in Art History at McGill University and my MFA in Fine Arts at Parsons. My days are definitely art-filled.

What cultural touchpoint—music, art, literature, etc.—has informed your practice the most? How? 

My cultural touchpoints often change with my mood. I'd include everything from the Minimalists, birds, Jane Austen, Erik Satie, and Caribou to vintage Esprit, Anne Truitt, Julia Margaret Cameron, Claudia Dey, Mary Heilmann, and sneakers. But ask me again in a few weeks. 😄

We, too, are obsessed with vintage Esprit.

What is the most rewarding aspect of working in your industry? The most challenging?

Being in control of my own time. Having to learn that true creative freedom comes from looking beyond external validation.

Has AI impacted your work? How? 

It's impacting how I think about making paintings, especially as I work toward my next show. Painting has always had a fraught relationship to technological advances (how many times has it been declared “dead”?), but questions of realness and directness are top-of-mind now, more than ever.

What advice would you give to someone starting a career in your industry? 

I always say 75% of your time, ideally, should be focused on your own work (trying, failing, redoing, refining, trying again, playing); the other 25% of your time should be in support of others (going to their shows, showing up when you say you will, reading, correspondence, etc.). Also, kindness above all else. Oh and no negative self-talk allowed. Ever.

What are you obsessed with that has little-to-nothing to do with "work"?

Weightlifting! It's the balm that my middle-aged body and mind need. It's magic.