Today I Made Nothing at Elizabeth Dee is a group exhibition that "considers the relationship between work and leisure, non-productivity and the negation of work..." (from show's press release). Borrowing its title from the writings of the late Russian writer/poet Daniil Kharms, Today I Made Nothing examines the "value of work" and questions "what constitutes it today" during a season when many take off for holidays and vacations and during a period when many are out of work and looking for jobs.
Many of the artists included in the exhibit used pre-existing materials or found objects like books, film clips, lamps, office chairs, and a Herman Miller cubicle (without an opening) and created pieces that depict the drudgeries of blue-collar labor as well as the corporate rat race. Modern work protocol makes it difficult to clearly differentiate "work" from leisure or socializing. "Research" today can include reading books and magazines, surfing the web, or traveling, while "networking" and "marketing" can include schmoozing over cocktails and expensed meals or attending glitzy events.
The show's press release poses an interesting theory—"the amount of time spent at work does not have a direct corollary with increased levels of production: working less can actually result in getting more done." I hope this message reaches all those obnoxious, busy-busy loud-mouths out there who self-importantly conduct business on their cell phones loudly in public and eternally peck away at their Blackberries. Is it absolutely necessary and must they be so annoying about it? At the end of the day, what do they really have to show for all that "work"? Learn more at Elizabethdeegallery.com. Through September 18th.
**All photos taken by Tom Powel Imaging, New York, courtesy of Elizabeth Dee Gallery.
Virginia Overton, Untitled (chairs with lights), 2009
Mika Tajima, A Facility Based on Change, 2010
Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda, Interviews I-1-japan. Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Joseph Strau, Untitled, 2010
Jonathan Monk, The Sound Of Music (A Record With the Sound Of Its Own Making), 2007
Jonathan Monk, The Sound Of Music (A Record With the Sound Of Its Own Making), 2007
Renee Green, United Space of Conditioned Becoming: Space Poem #1, From My Institution Corporation Factory Blackberry Cellphone Mouth To Yours, 2007
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