Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century

Unemployment (2016), another chapter of Kline’s ongoing cycle, is a stark series of installations set in the 2030s or 2040s—a vision of a near-future in which automation has replaced the majority of administrative office jobs. The first installation, Contagious Unemployment (2016), comprises six transparent sculptures in the shape of common viruses; each contains a cardboard box filled with the kind of personal items that white-collar workers keep at their desks and take with them when they are laid off. Together, the family photos, mugs, and other objects within each sculpture serve as a fictional portrait of a middle-class professional who has recently lost their job. 

For the artist, the metaphor of unemployment as contagion resonates with the experience of ostracism and shame so many workers feel after losing their jobs. Made four years before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Contagious Unemployment works also speak to how in the United States one’s health and access to health care are often dependent on employment status, and how illness or disability can be an obstacle to obtaining or retaining work.