Supervised Play

2022
Garbage bags, wood frames, robot vacuums
1080p single channel video | Installation 70 x 75 x 70 cm, 165 x 96 x 55 cm

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Well-constructed bureaucratic hierarchies are the engines of efficiency that ensure the automation of an organization. Political philosophers debate the contents of the social contract and grant varying degrees of control to the Leviathan. In the private sphere, wherein lies the legitimacy of this delegated authority, and what are its limits?

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In this work, the limp form on the floor hides its covert activities from surveillance by setting up the regular mechanical whirring of the robot vacuum inside it. Its soothing predictability almost leads one to overlook the absurdity of cleaning the inside of a garbage bag.

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The supervising garbage bag hovers around jerkily on top of another robot vacuum. The tender female voice from inside counts down to the hide and seek game, and issues intimate reassurances to the nameless heap that it is nearby and closely monitoring it.