Lawrence
Mesich
At Work

At Work installed in Hogarth Worldwide's New York office
At Work installed in Hogarth Worldwide's New York office
At Work installed in Hogarth Worldwide's New York office (detail)
At Work installed in Hogarth Worldwide's New York office (detail)
At Work installed at The Invisible Dog
At Work installed at The Invisible Dog
At Work installed at The Invisible Dog (detail)

2009-2012
Five channel video installation
Materials and 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.