2013
Photo Credit: David Humphreys
Imagery derived from a 1930s chart of US workers showing Social Security projections through productivity during the 1930s, coupled with random, floating gears attached around. The piece invites us to consider what is the driving force of the economy: manual labor & innovation and/or technology and its ever-evolving connection to our development? The piece also is reminiscent of a printmaking block as if endless "copies" of ourselves, laboring away will "solve" the dilemna. On a personal level: I used 10 figures representing the number of states I've lived in with no hierarchial attachment to any in particular. Being from one of the original "rust belt" states (Ohio), I was drawn to this idea of the assembly plant but also a line-up (of parts, people - criminal, productive) of figures and elements. I wanted the title to allude to this ambiguity yet draw the viewer in to explore this dual interpretation. Representing a sort of plaque, sign, emblem that shows forward progress (to the right), as hopeful overall.