Labor (turn it to the sun)

Labor is a photo album that captures 12 years of working as a construction laborer in New York City, confronting the oppressive dynamics of hyper-masculine environments. Through self-portraits, photographs, and mixed media, I explore themes of homophobia,

Labor is a photo album containing drawings and collages, accompanied by videos inspired by 12 years of working as a construction laborer in New York City. My goal was to pay off the debt I acquired after art school. Instead, I spiraled into a different kind of debt—trapped in a pattern of abusive drinking and an oppressive work culture.

Eventually, the hyper-masculinity wore me down. My coworkers enforced conformity through harassment, humiliation, and violence. To cope, I made work about my experience, unraveling the mythology of masculine hegemony and freeing myself from its constructs. Labor explores themes of homophobia, gendered violence, escapism, and systemic failures steeped in toxic masculinity.

I question what it means to be an ally and whether I could change the system from within. I question my complacency and the Sisyphean attempt to work towards changing the conservative ethos. I attempt to do this by using Self-portraits in this series that engages with the duality of being both artist and laborer and not feeling accepted as either. I dressed as my coworkers, performing for the camera in a final attempt to be accepted into an abusive family. This process became ceremonial to expel negativity, interrogate my role in perpetuating these dynamics, and reclaim vulnerability as the calluses wore away.

Financially unable to keep up with my peers, I turned to inexpensive materials: drugstore prints, scotch tape, handwritten annotations, and black construction paper with white pencil. These works mimic photo albums, tools that help us remember but often obscure the truth—mirroring the holes I photographed as distortions, portals I hoped would lead to escape.