Care and Control (2019)
Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York
May 14 - June1 2019
group exhibition The call is coming from inside the house
Whintey Independent Study Program 2018-2019
Care and Control are two ends on a spectrum of biopolitical power. They are administered, regulated and enforced in policing and service work - and also play a role in monster making. This exhibition was based on research around Frankenstein, the relationship of the monster trope to service labor, new developments in controlling techniques within policing, Agamben's notion of civil war. All of these were personal references to experiences of being both a service worker at the Whitney Museum during a time where the Whitney scrambled to respond to a letter issued by Whitney staff calling for a resignation of it's tear gas producing board member, and on the other hand, being exposed as staff member to the direct actions held at the Museum by activists. A peculiar feeling of being in between, and on no side of history - clearly a monstrous feeling, that I identified to be symptomatic for service work as such.
The beeswax candles one in shape of a pepper spray bottle and one in the shape of a hand-sanitizer present two chemical agents that are used in care and control work. I am interested in the these two principles of intervention as opposed to a natural unhindered development as for example in Anarchist thought or anti-authoritarian pedagogy.
The three posters are each made of found posters that are superimposed upon each other. The format of the poster has historically been developed as an easily reproducible carrier of information both propagandistic and educational in public space - as such I consider posters as information apparatuses. My posters however are overburdened with information and enhanced by diagrammatic labels. Each poster takes reference from a theme (from left to right: Frankenstein film posters, Service Industry information posters, anti-tear gas protest posters)
