What do people in Wisconsin do to earn a living? The answers provided in the photographic exhibition at Cardinal Stritch University “Wisconsin Labor: A Contemporary Portrait” continually fascinate and surprise the viewer. The portraits also provocatively question what will be the essential jobs society needs to prepare its youth for in the 21st century? What will these high school and college graduates be doing 10 or 20 years from now?
The Wisconsin Arts Board commissioned this pictorial documentation with six local photographers (Tim Abler, Dick Blau, David Heberlein, J. Shimon and J. Lindemann, and Jamie Young) through its Percent for Art program, which culminated in over 200 prints. Additional field notes related the subject's story, and the collection will be a permanent part of the historical archives for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development for future generations.
A majority of the photographs remain printed in black and white or by the time honored process of platinum-palladium prints. Claire Odishoo, director of the University's Northwestern Mutual Art Gallery, believes, “the black and white pictures elevate the subjects, for dramatic importance.”
Labor and economics certainly represent important issues in the 21st century, as perhaps they always have. Children dreamed they would accomplish more than their parents, and earn more than the present generation. However, that may change as a global market changes American industry along with the accelerated technology. Also, employment appears profoundly dissimilar in urban areas such as Milwaukee compared to those in rural Eagle River. Stritch's dignified portraits of workers and their machines display great diversity by incorporating occupations that one rarely considers or imagines doing to earn a living.
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Two portraits by Manitowoc's J. Shimon and J. Lindemann illustrate this diversity. Amber Baking Pizza (2007) portrays a young Wisconsin woman who became a General Manager at Papa John's Pizza, where she worked 90 hours a week. The field notes report this was her dream job until it closed due to “low profits.”
Another Manitowoc man clutching a bag of ice titled Rich With Ice reflects the tedious tasks required to own and mange a liquor store. Rich also played in a polka band and during 2010 eventually morphed the liquor store into Wenzel's Perfect World, a nightclub for his band. One man's interesting perspective on what a perfect world might look like.
Dick Blau photographs an Equine veterinarian in his Epson Archival Jet print Extraction. A gripping personal close-up finds Rick Tully gritting his own teeth as he pulls a large tooth from a horse's mouth. He has followed in a veterinary practice that his father maintained for over 30 years.
These represent only a small sampling form Stritch's evocative exhibition. Men and women who toil daily at honest work the general public may be blind to acknowledging or understanding. Occupations and jobs children will never say to adults when they ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Yet, the man who fixes flat tires for the vehicles at the Wisconsin Dells, their amphibious land and water Ducks, may be just as important as the farmer who raises organic buffalo and cleans manure from the barn on a daily basis. Two other employment portraits documented in this richly layered exhibition.
When distracted by labor concerns in one's own office or place of employment, who would consider extracting a tooth from a large stallion because it rarely crosses one's mind. These stately portraits generally place a particular city job in a fresh perspective. Stritch Univeristy's contemporary portrait of Wisconsin Labor promises to give dignity to all workers, no matter what they do, or how much income they enjoy, because each one contributes to Wisconsin's future. Which laborer or work force could the state survive without? And who could or will survive after losing that job which puts food on the table and gas in the car. These are the questions the exhibition subtly asks and the state voters will need to answer in the coming years.
(Cardinal Stritch University opens “Wisconsin Labor: A Contemporary Portrait in the Northwestern Mutual Art Gallery September 23 and will host a reception on Gallery Night, Friday, October 20, 6:00-9:00 pm.)
