EXTRA CLEAN, 2020
two-channel video installation (8:34 min / 8:56 min)
EXTRA CLEAN 1 (8:34)
Actress: Sholeh Dalai
Location sound recordist: Jeremy Kleiman
Sound engineer: Jonas Beile
Videographer and editor: Sugano Matsusaki
In today’s global market economy of neoliberal capitalism and precarious jobs, many people come into being as laboring bodies; as a laboring body we have to perform and we are judged on our performance. Different jobs require playing and enacting different roles, adding another identity to our already multiple selves.
In a temporary job economy the customer taps to order an item. It moves, it’s chased and it’s delivered. This process can be followed by a polished screen but below its surface, it implies a worker covered in his sweat, delivering a parcel. This gig economy offers many new job opportunities, even to those who have been out of the job market for years. As long as you have an intact body and a driver license, you can start working as an Uber driver or delivery worker from tomorrow. Another new identity will be born on a digital platform. This identity will receive stars as a rating like all the other workers. Will these identities and stars disappear when the market for temporary jobs disappears?
Apart from having an intact body and a driver's license, in order to become a successful laboring body within this system you need the proper academic degrees, proper work experiences, proper language skills, trustworthy looks, a clean record, etc. A hole in one’s CV as a result of a drop out, because of disease, care work or personal difficulties, will be seen as a stain. It’s not just dirt which is temporary and you can brush off, but a stigma. Society demands people to be available, properly behaving, according to the norm, not too colorful. Anonymous worker bodies are seen through the lens of their use without considering their individuality or individual needs and story. Society demands people to be bleached.
EXTRA CLEAN 2 (8:56)
Actress: Sholeh Dalai
Composer: Kyotetsu Horikawa
Sound engineer: Jonas Beile
Videographer and editor: Sugano Matsusaki
