Work is not given enough time in art. Putting aside sleeping hours, most people spend more time in work than outside of it, yet there are very few films, books or visual art about the experience of the very common experience of corporate office work. There’s some logic to that: work is ‘other thing’ from which art can be a compensation and a leavener. We also offer artists – like court jesters – the space to be unshackled, to be free where we cannot. It’s part of why people at the top of the corporate ladder use their wealth to buy chunks of that freedom as artwork. When work does show up in art, it’s something to be avoided, to escape into Walter Mitty fantasy. The
Week #9 2020: Toni Erdmann
Week #9 2020: Toni Erdmann
Week #9 2020: Toni Erdmann
Work is not given enough time in art. Putting aside sleeping hours, most people spend more time in work than outside of it, yet there are very few films, books or visual art about the experience of the very common experience of corporate office work. There’s some logic to that: work is ‘other thing’ from which art can be a compensation and a leavener. We also offer artists – like court jesters – the space to be unshackled, to be free where we cannot. It’s part of why people at the top of the corporate ladder use their wealth to buy chunks of that freedom as artwork. When work does show up in art, it’s something to be avoided, to escape into Walter Mitty fantasy. The