Making Work Visible

My paper sculpture depicts striking workers. Their signs are blank. They might be demanding an end to child labor, or a $15/hour minimum wage; that is, their demands span the decades. As does my family’s involvement with unions and workers’ rights. Uncle Sam, coming from Poland in the early 1900’s, did leatherwork and fought for the International Fur & Leather Workers Union during its most radical period. Grandpa Harry was a pattern-maker and a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. As the decades went on, he was able to collect Unemployment Insurance during the down season. Then my father, he went to college, and so he got to manage offices for the NY State Dept. of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance offices.

Me, I enjoy my hard-fought-for weekends free from work, and make art that commemorates the fight. My work is a paper sculpture–paper because it is inexpensive and thus brings attention to the low wages my ancestors earned and continues the tradition of leather and fabric working, that is, working with one’s hands.