Day Job: Georgia

Day Job: Georgia

January 13, 2012 – March 24, 2012

Day Job: Georgia
Curated by Nina Katchadourian and Stuart Horodner

Ashley Anderson, Mac Balentine, Christopher Chambers, Sarah Emerson, Sharon Lapin, Jody Fausett, Lane Ketner, George Long & Jessamine Starr, Romy Aura Maloon, Ignacio Michaud, Michael David Murphy, Valentina Custer O’Roark, Monet Taylor, Andy Moon Wilson, Zuzka Vaclavik

Day Job: Georgia brings together 15 artists whose various modes of employment have a clear link to the art that they produce. Selected from a statewide call for submissions that yielded hundreds of applicants, those chosen work in the food, architecture, gardening, sales, security, customer service, home improvement, and childcare industries.

Co-curator Nina Katchadourian posed two questions as Day Job: Georgia’s guiding concerns: 1. The day job can stand in the way of “freedom,” but is complete freedom necessarily the best climate for productivity? 2. If you choose to work, do you choose a job that’s very different from your creative work, so as not to sap energy from it, or do you parlay your artistic abilities into something that you can get paid for?

Most people do not have a choice about working; they must. What is clear about the artists in this exhibition is that their art is empowered by the skills, materials, and rituals of their day job. Their works address the ways in which labor can be boring, humorous, stressful, and satisfying.

At a time when Americans struggle with record unemployment rates and economic woes, the issues of working for money and pleasure take on added relevance. Perseverance and nimbleness, characteristics that have defined artists for centuries, become the modus operandi for anyone seeking a satisfying work life.

A catalogue documenting Day Job: Georgia will be available in March 2012.

Day Job has been organized by The Drawing Center, NY. The presentation of Day Job: Georgia at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center is curated by Nina Katchadourian and Stuart Horodner.

Don’t have a copy of our seasonal brochure? Get the current Winter 2012 booklet HERE.

Image: Ashley Anderson, Cups, 2010-2011, Litho crayon and sharpie on polyethylene-coated 16 oz paper cups, Courtesy the artist

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