Work In/Work out Il, 2025
Description :
Work In / Work Out II examines how the same physical exertion can carry radically different meanings depending on class. A pickaxe, traditionally associated with strenuous manual labor and survival, is placed against a black marble form resembling a sculpted abdominal body. The collision turns the language of labor into the language of fitness.
For a laborer, repetitive physical exertion is work performed for income and necessity. For someone with greater economic privilege, similar exertion may be deliberately pursued through gym memberships, personal trainers, and leisure time in the pursuit of an idealized body. The sculpture uses this contradiction to question how society assigns value to physical effort. One body is exhausted to make a living, while another can pay to experience exhaustion as self-improvement. Work In / Work Out II asks how class transforms not only the conditions of labor, but also our perception of what physical work means.
