This article investigates the diverse and heterodox array of labour practices and economic activities in artistic work. Existing studies contend that artistic income is highly skewed, with the majority of artists living in poverty, and that artistic work is intermittent, project-by-project based and precarious, with artists juggling multiple jobs. However, these prevalent perspectives typically foreground only formal contractual employment while neglecting the variegated range of informal, alternative and relational economic practices. Building on a mixed method study of Danish visual artists’ livelihoods and drawing on the total social organization of labour perspective, the article maps a diverse spectrum of labour practices ranging from formal paid/unpaid work to informal cash-in-hand work and non-monetized barter exchanges, to wholly non-commodified everyday practices of mutual aid and favour-swapping, as well as ‘consumption work’ such as thrift and self-provisioning. Heterodox economic practices are the primary mode by which artists cope with and manage precarious artistic livelihoods.

本文研究了艺术作品中各种不同的劳动实践和经济活动。现有研究认为，艺术收入严重扭曲，大多数艺术家生活在贫困中，并且艺术作品是断断续续的，逐个项目的，不稳定的，艺术家在兼职。但是，这些普遍的观点通常只关注正式的合同雇用，而忽视了非正式，替代和关系经济实践的各种范围。该文章以丹麦视觉艺术家的生计的混合方法研究为基础，并从整个社会劳动组织的角度出发，绘制了从正式带薪/无薪工作到非正式手头现金和非现金工作的各种劳动实践图。货币化的易货交易，完全互不干扰的日常互助和交换福利，以及节俭和自给自足的“消费工作”。异性恋经济实践是艺术家应对和管理不稳定的艺术生计的主要方式。