Amanda Grossman

Lettuce Room sketch, video work in progress, 2018

Untitled (Sunset Stomp), video with sound, 2017

Sleep Space sketch, video work in progress, 2018

DMV #1, Inkjet print, 8.5x11 in., 2018

Artist Statement

I have been deeply affected by subtle and non-subtle coded language of restraint. The work I make is a reaction that is often critically reflective of these conditions. For thesis, I explore productivity as it pertains to labor through a series of video works. I’ve grown up in the United States, where the coded motto is that greater productivity equals greater prosperity. My concerns lie in the ever-present feeling of work, the regimentation of people, and the effect this has on the emotional life. Questions about labor and the ways it is enmeshed in how we work, sleep, see, rationalize, and navigate space inform my most current research.

Working in video and performance, my art is infused with absurdity, as carried along by activities seemingly fruitless. My work presents a humorous critique, a nod to the Marxist idea, as it goes: labor produces goods, and goods produce capital. I digitally illustrate/perform particular situations in which there is an activity and a product. I build a world, or conversely, present a non-place for them to be housed in.  I dress sites and situations up to look fun. As present in my sketch, in which I’m making a room solely for lettuce washing, I am excited by the endless futility of activity.