Lawrence F Mesich
  BIO/CV CONTACT  
 
AT WORK version 2
 
 

5 CHANNEL VIDEO INSTALLATION
SD VIDEO LOOP, DVD PLAYERS, ALUMINUM, STEEL
2010
DIMENSIONS VARIABLE

 
 
DESCRIPTION
 

At Work investigates the specific relationship between the interstitial spaces of institutional interiors – lobbies, waiting areas, hallways – and the routines of the people employed to inhabit them. The piece consists of video monitors mounted in enclosures that mimic the infrastructure of spaces they inhabit. The spaces depicted in the videos are at once foreign and familiar, reminding us of many different spaces while remaining essentially unplaceable. The behaviors depicted, the repetitive and unconscious actions that occur in the ‘down time’ of a work day, are similarly familiar and alienating. The repetition of these familiar architectural tropes and physical gestures creates a zone of liminal discomfort; the normally ignorable or invisible spaces and gestures are given explicit focus. Simultaneously, the monitor enclosures reemphasize the invisibleness and mundanity of those spaces and gestures. This tension implicates the viewer, asking them to reevaluate the spaces they inhabit and the behaviors those spaces help engender.

Press for this piece:

ARTslant article by Kirsten Bengtson-Lykoudis
Huffington Post article by Lily Blau

 

 
 
INSTALLATION IMAGES
 
At Work - Installation view
 
At Work - Installation detail