Describing Labor

Describing Labor draws on artist Esther Shalev-Gerz’s research into depictions of work and working figures from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. Once a heroic image of class consciousness and national character—widely portrayed in the period of the Russian Revolution, the Great Depression, and the two World Wars—the worker has since receded from the forefront of the visual field. Through new works of video, audio, and photography, Describing Labor gives image to this often unseen figure whose labor fabricates the physical world. Rather than glorify historic representations and rather than fetishize the figure of the worker, the exhibition carries its visitors into a living image—the picturing of creation and of our own place within it.This exhibition is commissioned and organized by The Wolfsonian–FIU.

Attachment	Size
Describing Labor Press Release	101.08 KB