Any exhibition title using the word “working” is bound to elicit groans and expectations of statements evoking social theory and economic history. I could wax on about class struggle and the Protestant Work Ethic and drop big boy names like Durkheim, Engels and Marx. My familiarity with these terms is pretty much limited to my four-year undergraduate career many years ago.
The inspiration for these pieces can be found in the more earthbound ruminations culled from my experiences as a diligent and conscientious worker (a subjective label to be sure). So much of work is about pleasing the invisible but very present bosses (or at least not draw negative attention). I often felt my efforts were never good enough for my superiors and these doubts would in turn undermine any satisfaction derived from “a job well-done.”
Whatever aspirations or thoughts of career I might have started out with have been eroded by the daily grind of simply having a job. No small feat, considering years of too much overtime interspersed with long bouts of unemployment. It’s all about getting along with coworkers and finishing the task at hand so that we all can go home at a decent hour and have some semblance of a life outside of work.
Working Girl continues my exploration of food, consumerism, and ultimately the eat-or-be-eaten life and death cycle we are all a part of. The cows labor to greater productivity while using their feminine wiles to be “liked” and thus survive to come back yet another day. Their cartoon-like appearance belies desperation as they struggle to maintain their status in a factory where productivity requires physical and psychic sacrifice.