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_____ Manifesto Diptych

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These are two large-scale prints I created at 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, blanket wi-fi, and more and more precarious jobs, there is an expectation that we 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 two prominent phrases from the Communist Manifesto, but removing the operative words. Who is it that needs to unite? What is the social body that can bring us to liberation? What is the only thing we have to lose? What holds us back? I don’t think my goal with these pieces is to answer these questions, but to ask them.

You can buy the first print in this series by itself HERE.

You can buy the second print in this series by itself HERE.


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