JOB Creation Project

Sometime in 2007 I came up with the idea of distributing Jobs on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This artistic action would have been under the umbrella of the US Department of Art and Technology. However, after some procrastination (largely due to conflicts of time), the idea was dropped.

Until now.

Beginning tomorrow, March 17, 2010, I'll begin distributing JOBs to anyone who wants one (while supplies last) at the Q-Street entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro Station (Washington, DC).

This will be the first of several artistic actions to take place on successive Wednesdays (while supplies last), which I am calling JOB (laissez) Fair(e)s. Each action is a part of the JOB Creation Project.

Each JOB consists of a 1.25" button, and a card with quotes about government, labor, and economics from various politicians and economists.

The motivation for the project is two fold. First: Politicians fondly champion job creation, yet opposing parties have different perspectives on how it is done, reducing the process to incoherent and conflicting sound bytes, and reducing the word "job" into a platitude. The JOBs I create are, therefore, worthless; they are buttons, after all.

Second: (as often is the case) is the pun – a reference to the book of Job, and the thinking that those who keep searching for work, in the face of adversity (high unemployment, recession, etc), must have the patience of Job. And, considering some of the jobs numbers are padded by those who are underemployed, the idea that a person has a job can also be relatively meaningless if that job does not enable an individual to pay the bills.