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1668
2013
Closed 4.5 in. x 8 in. Open 18 in. x 24 in.
Inkjet on French Dur-O-Tone - Map Fold
1668, named for the year coffee made it to the New World, examines commodification of labor. The interior spread juxtaposes ledgers from coffee auctions with ledgers from slave auctions. On the reverse, historic depictions of of coffee slaves are conflated with imagery of coffee laborers from contemporary advertising. This temporal interplay continues in the text, which presents two heavily romanticized descriptions of coffee country – one from contemporary ad copy and one from a 19th C. European traveler.
Elements from coffee technical manuals carry on the rigid organization that characterizes the interior composition. This aesthetic of opaque objectivity and control that once abstracted the institutionalized disgrace of slavery persists today to obfuscate the commodity chain by which our coffee comes to the global North. The global aspect of this chain is further referenced by the piece’s structure, which is scaled and folded like a map.
Various Effects of Coffee on the Body
2013
Closed 2 in. x 2 in. x .125 in. Open 16 in. x 2 in.
Offset on Mohawk Superfine - Accordion
Various Effects of Coffee on the Body explores the idea of labor while comparing and contrasting consumption and production. Coffeehouse images of hard manual labor are used to illustrate a narrative surrounding coffee’s (and caffeine’s) physiological and psychological impact on the consumer, drawing analogies between personal addiction and cultural dependency.
http://www.levisherman.com/
levisherman7@gmail.com
To discuss availability.
1668
2013
Closed 4.5 in. x 8 in. Open 18 in. x 24 in.
Inkjet on French Dur-O-Tone - Map Fold
1668, named for the year coffee made it to the New World, examines commodification of labor. The interior spread juxtaposes ledgers from coffee auctions with ledgers from slave auctions. On the reverse, historic depictions of of coffee slaves are conflated with imagery of coffee laborers from contemporary advertising. This temporal interplay continues in the text, which presents two heavily romanticized descriptions of coffee country – one from contemporary ad copy and one from a 19th C. European traveler.
Elements from coffee technical manuals carry on the rigid organization that characterizes the interior composition. This aesthetic of opaque objectivity and control that once abstracted the institutionalized disgrace of slavery persists today to obfuscate the commodity chain by which our coffee comes to the global North. The global aspect of this chain is further referenced by the piece’s structure, which is scaled and folded like a map.
Various Effects of Coffee on the Body
2013
Closed 2 in. x 2 in. x .125 in. Open 16 in. x 2 in.
Offset on Mohawk Superfine - Accordion
Various Effects of Coffee on the Body explores the idea of labor while comparing and contrasting consumption and production. Coffeehouse images of hard manual labor are used to illustrate a narrative surrounding coffee’s (and caffeine’s) physiological and psychological impact on the consumer, drawing analogies between personal addiction and cultural dependency.
http://www.levisherman.com/
levisherman7@gmail.com
To discuss availability.