KatharineDwyer
My work is a personal reflection on a decade spent working in a corporate environment.
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An elusive web of power and influence exists between employees and those companies and institutions of which they are a part. My art practice explores the implicit in modern white collar culture: the subliminal transmission of power and authority, and the resulting effect on an employee’s state of mind.
The notion of ‘work’ is no longer a question of physical survival. Now that we labour using intellect rather than muscle, our effort has become intertwined with the sense of self, and so social status. In the Anglo Saxon world this combines with the Protestant work ethic, and is enabled with digital technology, to form an all-consuming, dystopian culture of 24/7 work on demand.
Within this, the employee internalises an insidious set of expectations. Of lone responsibility for their destiny. For managing their time against the onslaught of a digital deluge. For working ever harder, - wherever, whenever - to avoid corporate catastrophe.
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In my practice I explore the languages of authority, both personal and institutional, which are used to manufacture consent in this modern workplace. Working across performance, film and 3D, I consider both the means of communication of power and influence as well as the flip side of the coin: the impact of its reception.
My work seeks to capture the sense of isolation and disconnect this interminable culture can evoke in the employee, and to resist the priority given to work in contemporary society.