PROJECTS 
 

Werkstatt, installation view

Books and Disks, all foamcore and contact paper, overall 50" x 50" x 24"

Bad Disks, foamcore and contact paper

Britannicas, foamboard, conact paper, handcut adhesive vinyl, velcro

Revolving Workstation (Werkstatt), Books, and Disks
2000

Foamboard, contact paper, industrial shelving
108" x 72" x 79"

A workstation "in-the-round," Werkstatt is made entirely out of foamcore panels covered in wood-grain contact paper which are then attached together with velcro strips. Fully collapsible and modular, this seemingly multi-purpose, multi-directionally approachable "work station" was developed from images of office furniture units downloaded from the internet and then approximated in 3-D. Consisting of nine interchangeable units, Werkstatt is essentially a full-scale model of an office unit that hints at various work environments, but doesn't seem to provide an entire blueprint for the nature of work to be dealt with.

As a stand-in for a fictitious structure, Werkstatt presents the feeling of ergonomic use without delivering a function. The lightweight foamcore panels are not meant to withstand any real human use, and the entire structure seems to at once facilitate, and then reject the notion of usability--some of the shelving units are closed off or face opposite directions, and what look to be accessible cabinets are closed of and velcro'ed shut.

With open-ended function(s) suggested, and a seemingly ergonomic-yet-ultimately-prop-like exterior, Werkstatt questions the very nature of "work" and "use." What kind of bodies and people would use this fictional work unit? What kinds of "work" would be done? In the end, the unit, stripped of real use value, becomes a Bauhaus-like sculpture, an exercise in visual formalism. Peppered throughout the unit are what seem to be the traditional black artists' sketchbook, but which are made of foamcore and contact paper. Their mutated shapes (extra long, extra fat, too skinny) punctuate the oak-grain veneer and provide visually formal elements as well as hint at mutated function.

Adjacent to this is Books and Disks, a pile of purely foamcore and contact paper black sketchbooks and red computer disk. Taken as another purely formal display of line and color, it functions as a play of jumbled Mondrian elements. As a stand-in for parrallel forms of "media" (which essentially is what books and disks are), the pile of (discards? frenetic research?) can be seen as a mix-and-match of two information systems.