
This Mixed media site-specific installation contained two 12 foot by 12 foot
exposed drywalls with multiple canvases hung in the format of Malevich’s
supremetitist show. Canvases contained A hybrid image of the 1199 Health Care
Workers Union label. There is an interesting and often forgotten system of influence
between the early avant-garde and contemporary labor unions. For example, the
red star commonly associated with Communist organizations was also adopted by
many of the American Labor unions as a mark of solidarity during the early 20th
century. I am interested in the possibility of re-imagining these connections.
This work mines the work of the Russian Constructivists as a source of potential
resistance and examines its reification in contemporary culture. The central
stand of the installation contained a leggo replica of Tatlin’s monument
to the third Communist International contained within a large plastic sphere
measuring 48”x20”x20”. The sphere rotated and fake snow circulated
through the enclosure. This image oscillates between a nostalgic reminder of
the failed utopian promise of the historical avant-garde and a sign of its commodification.
The second location for this multi-site installation was created with the assistance
of the Arts Related Industry Project and the 1199 Health Care Workers Union.
This site specific installation was displayed at the 1199 Health Care Workers
Union Bread and Roses Gallery and the ARIP Student Gallery and combined photographs
taken by at-risk student populations of Manhattan High Schools on the concept
of labor with an experimental constructivist display. This work was exhibited
at the same time as Victory Over the Sun, with the intent of opening a dialogue
between the different sphere of the art-market, education and labor.