impossebility of telling…
I wanted to write more, so much more, but my temporary job has been so non-stop that I feel like a zip file, all packed full of information, impressions, encounters, thoughts, notes, images…it wil take some time to decompress it all…and find words that make sense of the whole experience…
But should the words do that?
Leah Wild, sociologist I interviewed, and whose lectures ‘Sociology of the Body’ I enjoyed immensly (I hope to post excerpts from our interview here at a later date) said that language is not adequate to describe the fragmented experiences of our lives as through language we try to explain, make sense, and follow its own logic. While I agree that language imposes its own rules and regs, (Foucault, and semiotics and post-structuralists sprint through mind at high speed) I also wonder how to use words, eg in the blogging style of writing, to translate-process-create stories, of our artistic practices. Also, feel more and more that it is in this tension of ‘making sense’ that my artistic labour lies. What has the residency been about beyond the immediate concern with work and labour? Can it be told yet? How to tell it?
The fragments – the instances – the moments of encounter – short relationships – spaces shared, exchanged – access to all areas – this is not North nor is it West – I have been working for 10 years – hand shake – hierarchies – structures – routines – access to all areas – labour valued and labour under valued – educated guest – educated guess – chance – event – knowledge – knowledge – knowledge – action, change, impact – comitment – political position – value – retribution – experimentation – performance – corridors – photography – economy of value – ethnography of value – making sense – making a living – living in making – the visible – the invisible – the told – the untold…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
I was just alerted to a wonderful series of photographs by Irving Penn called ‘Small Trades’, which were on show at the Getty Centre, New York, January this year.
I really like the performative in these images, the way their working clothes become costumes, and their tools their props, while they ‘act out’ their profession.
His portrait photographs, but unfortunately not this series are currently on at the London National Portrait Gallery, until 6 June 2010…
As per Getty site: “Working in Paris, London, and New York in the early 1950s, photographer Irving Penn (American, 1917–2009) created masterful representations of skilled tradespeople dressed in work clothes and carrying the tools of their occupations. A neutral backdrop and natural light provided the stage on which his subjects could present themselves with dignity and pride.” More info and images on http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/penn/index.ht…
And Getty Centre has just had an exhibition titled In Focus: The Worker presenting a photographic history of working people across many cultures. http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/focus_worker/…From the info on their site, it does though seem to be still rather focused on depicting workers in a traditional sense of a word, manual workers, who have been a much photographed subject in the history of photography – makes me wonder if that is because the painting in its history has largely depicted the aristocracy and a privileged class. Been given an interesting book recently, which was published as part of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery a few years ago, “Below Stairs”, about 400 years of painting depicting servants – will post couple of images that I like from that book soon, as I particularly like those where the servants fell asleep, and this sleep could be construed as a form of protest, though I know that in fact it depicted exhaustion. But, it did make me fantasise what would happen if workers simply fell asleep at their work place… http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/below-st…
RESEARCH IMAGES OF WORKERS IN BOOKS & ARCHIVES – PART 2 Collective portraits
I was particularly struck by the formal portraits of teams of workers – looking at their expressions, and the order of who stands where – does this order reflect the hierarchical structures each work place has? (even in the open plan offices, which are meant to hint at some sort of flat power structure, I think in many cases just mask true neo-liberal capitalist motivations…)
Some time ago I found archival photographs of shop keepers in Hackney, and I like that they have a sense of the occasion, when workers have to stop working and come out of the workplace to be photographed.
The first 2 images are from a book written by Volvo’s then president, published in the 1970s. It being 70s the assertions in the book such as ‘women are equal members of team’ etc, show self-conscious assertions how women are equal and important, at the same time as the photographs of them at work looking lots more eroticised then men’s ones… (the images in the previous post).
The last image I took is from an exhibition of archive photographs in Novi Travnik – a place which holds interest for me due to family connections, and its factory built by Tito in socialist Yugoslavia in the 1950’s making weapons for export, mostly to Iraq and Kuwait. My grandfather worked there for a few years before moving to Germany as a migrant labourer or ‘guest worker’. It’s uncanny how it all connects… This image shows workers of the factory probably celebrating a state national day, gathered together under the sign ‘Zemlja se voli, onoliko i koliko se radi!’ The land is loved, as much as how hard its people work.’ In the socialist context the connection was highlighted between loving the country and working hard while in the capitalist it was the teams working together in a good and fair place of work, promoting fairness and hapiness though being part of a wholesome working ‘culture’. Both are promotional, the Volvo book more so as the photographs were taken particularly for that purpose…
The book was kindly lent to me by Peter Cressey, sociologist at the University of Bath, and we’ve had many intersting chats about ‘industrial relations turning into human reseources’, the language of ‘managing labour’ and the links between Universities and employment…
RESEARCH IMAGES OF WORKERS IN BOOKS PART 1
A collection of some of the research images from books on workers, industrial relations, labour, globalisation…
