Office Work

2018 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

Dimensions variable

Walead Beshty

location: Los Angeles, California
year born: 1976
gender: male
home town: London, United Kingdom

Office Work by Walead Beshty consists of a partially deconstructed desktop monitor screen, cleanly speared through its center onto a metal pole. Despite its dismantled form, the screen still functions, a simple, mountain-range desktop background clearly visible with no distortion. As with much of Beshty’s work, Office Work thematizes its own construction, in this case, through a clearly deconstructive action that preserves the technological ontology present through the monitor. Rather than engage in outright destruction, Beshty carefully articulates the inner workings of the monitor outwards, alluding to the near violence of his action through the screen’s stark impalement. The work exists uneasily between display and destruction, disputing singularly positivist notions of constructing art.


Artist and writer Walead Beshty examines the processes of his own multidisciplinary (though primarily photographic) work’s production, linking these processes to global issues including human migration,displacement, and technology. His works, oftentimes visually abstracted, argue for their own production as a process of transformation, emphasizing an expansive array of actions and methods through which art can be structurally transformed or produced. In this way, by examining the matrix of production surrounding his individual artworks, Beshty’s introspection also expands outward onto a complex field of vectors connecting actions, subjects, structures, and forms. Beshty explores the limitations and possibilities of his mediums, which include photography, light, metal, glass, cardboard, and, often, distance. Often striking in their visual presence, his work reflects the movement of images and objects, both in a literal sense and in terms of the way that ideas and materials are circulated and exchanged. They also convey another narrative: the history and the processes that construct both the world and his art.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

That Kiosk Outside The National Portrait Gallery Is About To Reopen As A Cafe
© » LONDONIST

The National Portrait Gallery's Pavilion Cafe | Londonist That Kiosk Outside The National Portrait Gallery Is About To Reopen As A Cafe By Will Noble Will Noble That Kiosk Outside The National Portrait Gallery Is About To Reopen As A Cafe The former ticket booth opens as a cafe on 1 November 2023...

Freeway Series
© » KADIST

Catherine Opie

1994

Although best known as a provocateur and portraitist, Opie also photographs landscapes, cityscapes, and architecture...

Famed Studio of Gaugin and Modigliani to Be Restored
© » ART & OBJECT

Famed Studio of Gaugin and Modigliani to Be Restored| Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...

Donation Vases
© » KADIST

Ana Navas

2019

Ana Navas uses humor to address formal, aesthetic, and societal conventions that are interwoven in the everyday through the normalization of gendered behaviors and style choices used to project personal and collective signifiers...

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Time-Traveling Lens
© » HYPERALLERGIC

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Time-Traveling Lens Skip to content Hiroshi Sugimoto, "Lake Superior, Cascade River" (1995), gelatin silver print (all photos AX Mina/Hyperallergic) LONDON — The first image at the Hayward Gallery’s show of work by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto is a pair of upright apes walking through a volcanic landscape...

artn’t: Thailand’s Rebel Artists
© » ARTS EQUATOR

artn’t: Thailand’s Rebel Artists | ArtsEquator Skip to content Nutcha Tantivitayapitak and Sudarat Musikawong travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand to shine a light on the artn’t Collective, who are currently facing numerous legal charges for works that are viewed as critiquing the state...

Artist Spotlight: Mary Anna Pomonis
© » ART AND CAKE

Artist Spotlight: Mary Anna Pomonis – Art and Cake July 7, 2023 July 4, 2023 Author Artist Spotlight: Mary Anna Pomonis Pomonis Studio Portrait, 2022 photo by Justin Stadel What does a day in your art practice look like? I spend a lot of time drawing on grid paper...

Espectacular cortina
© » KADIST

Pia Camil

2012

Camil has made numerous paintings and photographs of halted projects along Mexico’s highways (she calls them “highway follies”), and of abandoned billboards that look like theater curtains dramatizing failed capitalist strategies...

Art Basel Miami Beach Sees Sales of Big-Ticket Artworks, Including Marlene Dumas Painting for $9 M
© » ARTNEWS MARKET

Art Basel Miami Beach’s Early Hours Sees Sales of Big-Ticket Artworks – ARTnews.com Skip to main content By Karen K...

Altar at Kliprivier, Soweto
© » KADIST

Santu Mofokeng

2011

Santu Mofokeng is a South African photographer...

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (3–9 Dec 2018)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (3–9 Dec 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do December 3, 2018 The Edge , at Lot’ng, 8–23 Dec This is a beautiful locally produced musical that explores the relationships and past of a man standing on the edge...

Showcasing a national treasure (via Frontier Myanmar)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Showcasing a national treasure (via Frontier Myanmar) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar June 21, 2018 CLOSED OFF for decades, in recent years members of the public have been able to enjoy more time inside the grounds of the Secretariat in downtown Yangon, one of the country’s most historically significant buildings...

Being and Becoming: Of Femininities in the Malay World Through 50 Images
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Being and Becoming: Of Femininities in the Malay World Through 50 Images | ArtsEquator Skip to content This May, we are pleased to announce the launch of an online exhibition – Being and Becoming: Of Femininities in the Malay World Through 50 Images ...

The Business of Being an Art Collector: A Roundtable Discussion With Three Top Patrons About How the Pursuit Has Changed - via artnet news
© » LARRY'S LIST

Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, and Paul Ettlinger sit down to discuss how art collecting has evolved....

Subverting the Canon:Grace Lau Review
© » AESTHETICA

Aesthetica Magazine - Subverting the Canon: Grace Lau Review Subverting the Canon: Grace Lau Review In 2004, British-Chinese photographer Grace Lau (b...

Book of Veles 18 - Konstantin
© » KADIST

Jonas Bendiksen

2021

For his project Book of Veles artist Jonas Bendiksen travelled to the small city of Veles in North Macedonia, inspired by a series of press reports starting in 2016, that revealed Veles as a major source of the fake news stories flooding Facebook and other social media sites celebrating Donald Trump and denigrating Hillary Clinton...

Jean-Luc Moulène: La Vigie (extrait 6)
© » KADIST

August 26 – October 24 La Vigie (extrait 6) (2004–2011) is part of Jean-Luc Moulène’s photographic essay about a Princess tree ( Paulownia tomentosa ) that keeps sprouting in the cracked sidewalk across from the French Ministry for the Economy, Industry, and Employment in Paris...

Laura Lamiel — Ursule
© » SLASH PARIS

Laura Lamiel — Ursule — Marcelle Alix Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Laura Lamiel — Ursule — Marcelle Alix Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Laura Lamiel — Ursule Exhibition Installation, sculpture Laura Lamiel, Ursule (2), 2023 — Vue de l’exposition Ursule, 2023...

Jeremy Grayson obituary
© » THE GUARDIAN

Jeremy Grayson obituary | Photography | The Guardian Skip to main content Skip to navigation Skip to navigation Jeremy Grayson photographed Shirley Bassey, Sammy Davis Jr and Marlon Brando Jeremy Grayson photographed Shirley Bassey, Sammy Davis Jr and Marlon Brando Obituary Jeremy Grayson obituary My father, Jeremy Grayson, who has died aged 90, was a professional photographer who worked over the years for clients including the BBC, Radio Times, Talk of the Town and the London Palladium...