A meditation on the ramifications of chronic unemployment in the "rust belt," this work examines the aesthetics of decay and, at the same time, questions its inevitability. UN/NECESSARY PERCENT is both a single channel video tape and a multi-monitor installation, each incorporating footage shot in the Iron Range of Minnesota and post-industrial Detroit. This imagery, along with fragments of interviews with people who are unemployed in these areas, suggests the impact of an economic system founded on the notion that a certain percentage of workers must be unemployed at any given time.

 

VIDEO

1996

University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI

Axelgrease, Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo, NY

Madison Art Center, Madison, WI

DUTV, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Dallas International Film and Video Festival, Dallas, TX

TRUTH? & Electronic Media, University Galleries, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL

Wisconsin Triennial, Madison Art Center, Madison, WI

 

INSTALLATION

Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, WI

 

CATALOGUE

University of Wisconsin Art Department Faculty Exhibition

 

RADIO

Sunday Afternoon Live From the Elvehjem, WHA-FM

 

PRINCIPLE COLLABORATORS

Videography by Matthew Konicek

Sound by Joseph Koykkar

 

SUPPORT

Experimental Television Center

Film in the Cities/Jerome Foundation/National Endowment for the Arts

University of Wisconsin Graduate School Research Committee

 

AVAILABLE ON REQUEST

Proposal for Installation

Video, 20 minutes