Human Work (IGOR GAIDAI)
An old house was being destroyed in my street, across the road. At the same time, someone was refurbishing a building in the backyard of my workshop. Thus, I acquired much wood for
heating. I burned it, and after that, some metal objects still remained in the pile, such as nails, staples, door and window hinges, hooks, locks, etc. All of it had to be sent either to a landfill or to recycling. Yet, I could not dare to throw anything away. I examined every object, imagining the people who had manufactured and used them. The history of human work was there in front of me. In a broad sense, this is the history of materials, inventions, and processing. It is also the history of pollution with the products of human work and consumption. All of this urged me to photograph of all these treasures, and I felt like adding more modern metal artifacts to the pile. This is how the first photo from the “Human Labor” series appeared. There are three photos now: “Metal”, “Plastic”, “Computer”.
heating. I burned it, and after that, some metal objects still remained in the pile, such as nails, staples, door and window hinges, hooks, locks, etc. All of it had to be sent either to a landfill or to recycling. Yet, I could not dare to throw anything away. I examined every object, imagining the people who had manufactured and used them. The history of human work was there in front of me. In a broad sense, this is the history of materials, inventions, and processing. It is also the history of pollution with the products of human work and consumption. All of this urged me to photograph of all these treasures, and I felt like adding more modern metal artifacts to the pile. This is how the first photo from the “Human Labor” series appeared. There are three photos now: “Metal”, “Plastic”, “Computer”.
