Brief Regularity

"Brief Regularity" is an installation piece which focuses on time, labor and alienation. For this piece I projected two videos on opposite walls of the gallery and placed multiple speakers in the grid above in order to create a space for the viewer to experience it. The goal is for the viewer to stand in the middle of the gallery and experience the passage of time without seeing any of the labor being performed in the videos. The nature of this work offers the viewer an opportunity to see things that they might not if they experienced it outside of the gallery. On one side there's a line of cars going through a drive-thru that never ends, and on the other a woman cleaning a room that is only visible for a few seconds at a time. I chose to use static video images of these two jobs in the service industry because of the unseen/unnoticed labor involved.

My interest for this work originates from my visits to fast food restaurants and hotels, along with my relationship to people who work or have worked similar jobs. I have also worked in restaurants myself and know how demanding these types of jobs can be. I have witnessed people work jobs that appear to be easy but when done over and over for years become extremely demanding and some of the people performing these jobs get trapped in an ongoing cycle of monotonous work. Over time the people working those jobs become machine-like, performing the same tasks day after day becoming more and more alienated with the people they serve. The people who are not performing the labor but participating are also involved in this cycle, they are so concerned about being as efficient as possible that they themselves become machine-like. It is almost like time is being used to control people, some need to work harder and faster because their time is being bought to help others move through as efficiently as possible. This system of operating is creating a lack of communication, we are so concerned with time that we don't make time to really talk to people, we say thing like "hi" and "how are you doing" but more often than not we don't have the time to listen to how people are doing. We just continue moving forward and forget to look around from time to time

My intention was to have the static video images projected and give the viewers the opportunity to think about themselves and have memory come into play through the roles that they themselves participate in.

Gallery installation shots