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