#459 Sciopero Bianco

The title means Italian strike [white strike]. It is a job action when you do the minimum required work and follow any time-consuming rule that is usually not enforced. The work is done by pushing small pebbles found outside my studio through the wet filler with a scrape.

This work is part of a small series titled Resistance. They recall different work-related ways of protesting against difficult working conditions. But they also reflect a more general discontent with capitalist ideology and a refusal to be a productive member of the consumerist society.

In Swedish, there is an expression of throwing pebbles into the machine [kasta grus i maskineriet], which means sabotaging something by being difficult or introducing complications. We are all pushed along by the relentless machinery of capitalism, but by not complying with every command and pressing our heels in the dirt, we can at least produce some discernible traces. Ultimately, it might slow it down or create a possibility for change.

Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.

Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.