In her exhibit at The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, artist Liz Glynn has constructed enormous structures from reclaimed wooden pallets. Her exhibit, called The Archaeology of Another Possible Future, is examining the new digital economy’s impact on the future, given that automation and the Internet have changed the character of labor and manufacturing. She is asking what happens to objects and the people who make them, in an ever-increasing technological world.
Pallets are the basis of the global economy. Products move all over the world on pallets and seemingly the need for pallet manufacturing will never stop. Still the artist seems to be saying in an age where objects can be “manufactured” on a 3D printer, what’s next for humans in the manufacturing chain?
Mass MoCA as it’s known, is a museum housed in 130,000 square feet of old industrial buildings. They make a perfect home for very large art installations and are especially fitting for this particular exhibit. The buildings represent the nation’s industries, where thousands of people earned their livings providing the labor to manufactured goods.
The artist Liz Glynn is interested in manufacturing trends in relationship to other U.S. industries:
- The shift from a material-based economy to virtual technology companies with billion dollar valuations
- Nanotechnology products that are beyond what we can see with unaided eyes
- Accumulated capital as an end product
She uses found items and materials in her work. These wooden pallet structures show that even if they aren’t being used to transport products, there is still good reason to salvage them for another purpose.
Greenway Products and Services, LLC, couldn’t agree more with the artist. Recycling used pallets is a large component of our business.
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