Josh Kline

Cost of Living (Aleyda)
2014

A blue cleaning cart with various cleaning supplies and several dismembered mannequin parts, including hands and a head, arranged on its shelves. The cart is equipped with wheels and a gray trash bag attached to one end. It is placed against a plain background with a neutral-colored floor.

A blue cleaning cart with various cleaning supplies and several dismembered mannequin parts, including hands and a head, arranged on its shelves. The cart is equipped with wheels and a gray trash bag attached to one end. It is placed against a plain background with a neutral-colored floor.

Not on view

Date
2014

Classification
Sculpture

Medium
3D-printed sculptures in plaster, inkjet ink, and cyanoacrylate; janitor cart, and LEDs

Dimensions
Overall: 44 7/8 × 19 5/8 × 45 1/4in. (114 × 49.8 × 114.9 cm)

Accession number
2015.32a-p

Edition
1/3 | 2 APs

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee

Rights and reproductions
© Josh Kline

API
artworks/46597

Audio

Josh Kline, Cost of Living (Aleyda), 2014

In Human Interest and America Is Hard to See (Kids)

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Josh Kline, Cost of Living (Aleyda), 2014

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Narrator: Take a minute and look closely at all of the parts of this sculpture by Josh Kline. I wouldn’t blame you if you had a hard time taking your eyes off of the head on the middle shelf of this cleaning cart. It looks so real! What do you think of the look on her face? Did you notice the dark circles under the eyes?
This sculpture is based on a real woman. Her name is Aleyda. When Kline made this sculpture, she had a job cleaning rooms in the Rivington Hotel in Manhattan. The artist made two copies of her head using a three-dimensional scanner, and then printed it. He had one painted realistically, and one so that it matched the label of her cleaning fluid. He’s also scanned and printed a copy of her foot, and some other cleaning supplies.
Josh Kline makes a lot of art about workers. He thinks our society sometimes focuses so much on how work gets done that we forget about the real people who are doing it. What do you think this sculpture has to say about that?

Exhibitions

Josh Kline
4 works in the collection

View artist