I originally began creating a series of prints about the Communist Manifesto back in 2013, as part of the Justseeds' exhibition Uprisings! Images of Labor" in Milwaukee in 2013. The idea behind the exhibition was to create representations of contemporary labor, but I find it increasingly difficult to clearly articulate what labor looks like in the United States in 21st Century. With cell phones, tablets, wifi, work from home, and now AI—with more jobs more precarious than ever—there is an expectation that everyone can and will be willing to work all the time. For more and more people there is no longer clear geographical distinctions between the work place and anywhere else, and less and less temporal distinctions as well.
I tried to get at some of this precarity and lack of clarity by highlighting prominent phrases from the Communist Manifesto, but removing the operative words. In this case, what is it that is keeping us locked into the cycle of immiseration we call capitalism? Can we let it go?
In addition to creating two large format screenprints for Uprisings!, I also worked with Art in Ad Places to install these prints on telephone booths and in bus shelters in NYC.
This is the second of these designs as an inexpensive Riso. You can find the first HERE.
