Image Employment presents recent moving image works that investigate various modes of contemporary production. The selected works illustrate differing approaches to the subject, from observational films that avoid participation in capitalistic image creation, to videos that engage corporate omnipotence by employing its processes, as well as works that complicate these two tendencies.
Many of the films in the exhibition take an oppositional approach to commercial image making. In Kevin Jerome Everson's Quality Control African-American workers from an Alabama dry-cleaning factory are shown relentlessly carrying out their jobs in real time. Everson explores the duration and physicality of labor through a series of lengthy shots that draw attention to particular tasks such as working the pant press or ironing shirts.
Alternately, many video works in this exhibition employ corporate processes and communication by reiterating corporate imagery and intervening into sites of emergent industries and globalized consumption. DIS' Watermarked I Kenzo Fall 2012, for example, arose out of a paid commission for Kenzo's seasonal menswear collection. The work reflexively dramatizes the commercial advertisement form through the absurd excesses of the actors' expressions, the politically correct racial composition, and a stock media infused aesthetic.
Invoking the growing convergence between labor, consumption, and that which propels them, Image Employment examines different ways artists use moving image work to engage and confront contemporary modes of production.
Week 1: September 5–9
Workers Leaving...
Workers Leaving The Factory
Auguste and Louis Lumière, 1895, 1 min, 35mm to video, b&w, silent, France
Workers Leaving the Factory
Harun Farocki, 1995, 36 min, video, color and b&w, 1:1,37, Germany
Workers Leaving the Googleplex
Andrew Norman Wilson, 2011, 11 min, HD video, color and sound, United States
Workers Leaving the Job Site
Kevin Jerome Everson, 2013, 6:30 min, 16mm to HD video, color, silent, United States Courtesy of the artist; Trilobite-Arts DAC and Picture Palace Pictures
Program duration: 54:30 minutes
Screening schedule: Noon, 1 PM, 2 PM, 3 PM, 4 PM, 5 PM
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Week 2: September 12–16
Long Takes and The Object of Labor
Long Takes
Quality Control
Kevin Jerome Everson, 2011, 71 min, 16mm to HD video, b&w and sound, United StatesCourtesy of the artist; Trilobite-Arts-DAC and Picture Palace Pictures
Lunch Break
Sharon Lockhart, 2008, 83 min, 35 mm transferred to HD video, color and sound, United States
The Object of Labor
Sack Barrow
Ben Rivers, 2011, 21 min, 16mm to HD video, color and sound, United Kingdom
Unstable Object
Dan Eisenberg, 2011, 69 min, HD video, color and sound, U.S./Germany/Turkey
Screening schedule:
Noon – Quality Control
1:15 PM –* Lunch Break*
2:40 PM – Sack Barrow
3:05 PM – Unstable Object
4:15 PM – Quality Control
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Week 3: September 26–30
Dream Factory
Stealing Beauty
Guy Ben-Ner, 2007, 18 min, SD Video, color and sound, Israel
The Trainee
Pilvi Takala, 2008, 13 min, HD Video, color and sound, Finland
A New Product
Harun Farocki, 2012, 36 min, HD video, color and sound, Germany
People's passion, lifestyle beautiful wine, gigantic glass towers, all surrounded by water
Neil Beloufa, 2011, 10 min, HD video, color and sound, France
Watermarked I Fall 2012
DIS, 2012, 2 min, HD Video, color and sound, United States
Strategies
Harm van den Dorpel, 2011, 5 min, HD video, color and sound, The Netherlands
Green Screen Refrigerator
Mark Leckey, 2010, 17 min, HD video, color and sound, United Kingdom
De-employed
Michael-Bell Smith, 2012, 3 min, HD video, color and sound, United States
Strike
Hito Steyerl, 2010, 30 sec, HD single channel video, color and sound, Germany
K-CoreaINC.K (section a)
Ryan Trecartin, 2009, 33 min, HD video, color and sound, United States
Program duration: 2:18 min
Screening schedule: Noon, 2:20 PM, 4:40 PM
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Week 4: October 3–7
The Movement of Capital
Part I
The Financial Crisis
Superflex, 2009, 12:23 min, HD video, color and sound, Denmark
Open Outcry
Ben Thorp Brown, 2013, 15 min, HD video, color and sound, United States
Unsupported Transit
Zachary Formwalt, 2011, 14:25 min, HD single channel video, color and sound, United States
Part II
China Town
Lucy Raven, 2009, 51:30 min, photographic animation, United States
Screening schedule:
Noon – Part 1
12:45 PM – China Town
1:40 PM – Part 1
2:25 PM – China Town
3:20 PM – Part 1
4:05 PM – China Town
5:00 PM – Part 1
Curated by Aily Nash and Andrew Norman Wilson.