HIDDEN ASSEMBLY: Labor in Contemporary Culture

October 21, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2016

Contact: Lisa Radon
lradon@pnca.edu

Portland, OR—October 20, 2016—The Center for Contemporary Art & Culture at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) and Newspce Center for Photography present HIDDEN ASSEMBLY: Labor in Contemporary Culture. This exhibition is curated by Yaelle S. Amir, Curator, Newspace Center for Photography. The starting point of the group exhibition is the recognition that under capitalism most production is rendered invisible. The labor that people perform is largely obscured or eliminated—an effect heightened by the expanded tech field, global outsourcing, and the rise of precarious work. Hidden Assembly addresses our reconfigured labor market by featuring projects that examine what it means to work in current times. Twelve projects across two venues (Newspace and PNCA) reflect uniquely precarious conditions resulting from capitalist values and governmental strategies; unrecognized producers in the new digital economy; and creative activism that advocates for improved and regulated worker conditions in an age of global and unorganized labor.

The exhibition prompts us to assess the human cost of our consumption and the nature of the work we contribute to society. It further demonstrates that whether organized or unorganized, the conditions of our labor are linked by a system where visibility of the few comes at the expense of invisibility of the masses. By foregrounding the work and conditions of those who produce and contribute to our material and cognitive worlds, and encouraging empathy and self-awareness, this exhibition modestly attempts to resist their systemic erasure in our current age of invisible labor.

Opening reception at PNCA: Thursday, November 3, 6-8pm
Opening reception at Newspace: Friday, November 4, 6-8pm

Curator: Yaelle Amir

Related Public Programs:
Thursday, November 3, 6:00-8:00pm: Hidden Assembly opening reception at PNCA’s Lemelson Innovation Studio (511 NW Broadway)
Friday, November 4, 6:00-8:00pm: Hidden Assembly opening reception at Newspace (1632 SE 10th Ave)

Saturday, November 12, 11:00am – 12:30pm: Organizing the Unorganized: Galvanizing Cultural Workers. An open discussion led by members of the Art Handlers’ Alliance to consider the challenges of galvanizing unorganized groups of workers, and methods to bringing about better working conditions in the culture industry and beyond. This event will take place at PNCA (511 NW Broadway).

Tuesday, December 6, 6:30-8:00pm: Workshop: Wages for Facebook. A workshop led by curator and scholar Laurel Ptak focused on worker’s rights and the nature of labor, as well as the politics of its refusal, in our digital age. Is what we do on Facebook work? How would we calculate our value? What could an alternate form of social media, based on an idea of the commons or a feminist praxis, look like? This event will take place at PNCA (511 NW Broadway).

Check bit.ly/NSupcoming for additional events.

Venue Information:
Please note that this exhibition takes place at two different venues:

The Center for Contemporary Art and Culture at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is located at 511 NW Broadway, Portland, OR 97209

Hours:
Thursday – Saturday: 11:00am – 5:00pm
Tuesday & Wednesday by appointment only
T: 503.226.4391 | W: https://ccac.willamette.edu

Newspace Center for Photography is located at 1632 10th Ave, Portland, OR.

Hours:
Monday – Thursday 10:00am-9:30pm
Friday – Sunday 10:00am-6:00pm.
T: 503.963.1935 | W: www.newspacephoto.org
Free and open to the public.

Images: From top-left: Mary Lum, Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor, 2011/2016, site specific wall installation; Betty Marín, Arnaldo, from the Pineros series, 2013; Anna Gray & Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Work Reduction, letterpress prints and cinderblocks. All images courtesy the artists.

Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the Oregon Cultural Trust, Collins Foundation; Kinsman Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Oregon Arts Commission; and The Oregon Community Foundation.

About the Center for Contemporary Art & Culture
The Center for Contemporary Art & Culture is a platform for cultural production including exhibition, lecture, performance, and publication. Housed within Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), the Center throws open its doors to the greater public to foster conversation and community.

About Pacific Northwest College of Art
As Oregon’s premier college of art and design since 1909, Pacific Northwest College of art has helped shape the region’s visual arts landscape for more than a century. Today PNCA is a dynamic platform for 21st century art and design education at its new campus in the heart of downtown Portland. PNCA offers a BFA program with ten majors, six graduate programs within the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, and a Post-Baccalaureate program. pnca.edu

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