In 1747 William Hogarth produced the print suite ‘Industry & Idleness’. Comprised of twelve prints it charts the careers and lives of two young apprentices, Francis Goodchild and Tom Idle. Each apprentice presents the different character traits of the idle and industrious worker; the ‘good’ apprentice, Francis Goodchild, being a conscientious worker climbs the middle classes to become Mayor of London, whereas the ‘bad’ apprentice, Tom Idle, loses his job and resorts to a life of crime, resulting in his death by public hanging.
The successes and failures of Goodchild and Idle are mirrored by the concurrent order and disorder of their surrounding environments. Initially, they share the same workroom space, underscoring their parallel social positions and future potential. However, as the print series develops Idle is cast onto the street and its unruly environment, whilst Goodchild exists within the structured, orderly world of the polite, dutiful and successful middle class. Hogarth uses markedly different compositions to depict Idle and Goodchild’s contrasting envi- ronments; either a fluid, untidy and somewhat undisciplined composition, or a literally upright, structured and solid depiction. The differences in these depictions allude to the associated values of moral degradation and contentious self-improvement.
The moral tale of Hogarth’s prints initially seems at odds with the modern office space of the Contemporary Art Society. However, the relationship of these works to the office reveals something of the organisation’s activities, drawing upon a sample of the diverse historic, modern and contemporary collections that form part of the Society’s Member Museums.
Within the context of the open plan office, Hogarth’s prints present historic reminders of the threat of idle behavior and differing attitudes to work. The drive for efficiency in the workplace is a constant desire within any organisation and a drive that privileges an ethos of hard work. Indeed, in a recent publication the oral historian Studs Terkel (1.) presents a collection of interviews conducted with a cross-section of American workers, whose focus on privileging the hardworking and conscientious employee is captured in a pertinent remark by the executive secretary, Anne Bogan:
“I become very impatient with dreamers. I respect the doers more than the dreamers. So many people, it seems to me, talk about all the things they want to do. They only talk without accomplishing anything. The drifters are worse than the dreamers. Ones who really have no goals, no aspirations at all, just live from day to day…”
Here, Bogan’s definition of the drifters and dreamers seems to echo Hogarth’s construction of Tom Idle, a figure without drive or commitment whose lack of working, or ‘doing’, results in his ultimate downfall. There is an association of higher morality with those that work, ‘the doers’, contrasting with those who do not, but rather drift and dream through their lives. This moral positioning seems to draw upon a Christian ethos, echoing the message of Hogarth’s prints and a further sentiment of competitiveness within the contemporary capitalist market.
Rather than a direct transference of Hogarth and Bogan’s sentiments towards labour, Bureau Curator Sophia Crilly’s decision to utilise these historic prints as a starting point for developing a contemporary curatorial response to the Contemporary Art Society’s ‘Rotate’ programme references a complex and critical reflection on current working environments and the pressures on the contemporary employee. Indeed, for some, the current political and economic climate has prompted an increasing awareness of our complex entanglement within the capitalist realms of labour and exchange – the worker’s constant struggle to find value, pleasure and dignity within his or her employment, and the worry that these attributes are attached to the increasing fragility of their situation. In curating the exhibition ‘Industry & Idleness’ at a time of dramatic funding cuts to public services the ideals of the industrious worker (highlighted by Hogarth) touch upon a nerve of alienation within current workforces – whether feeling alienated from the value of their work by modern management strategies, the ever present fear of potential redundancy, or the lack of visible impact that their actions seem to make.
The continued struggle to find motivation for, and satisfaction within ones employment is often enhanced or reduced by the quality of the working environment. In 2006 a controversial move by Government Revenue and Customs offices saw the introduction of a number of restrictions regarding the use and tidiness of employee’s desk space. All ‘non-essential’ items such as money, personal memorabilia, photographs, packed lunches and mobile phones were banned from office desks in an effort to boost productivity. However, the removal of any sense of personal identity from the employee’s environment only served to reduce their enthusiasm for the workplace and levels of efficiency subsequently slipped. The décor and display of the working environment and an individual’s feeling of ownership over their workspace inevitably impact upon their well being and desire to commit to their workload.
The drive for efficiency and productivity in the workplace is further encountered in the development of the open plan office, an environment that presents opportunities for easy communication, welcome discussion and learning through observation and engagement with others:
“Work environments that are more open create more opportunities for observing and learnig from those with more experience and different skills.” (2.)
However, the open plan office can be further seen to present a system of control. With everyone placed on view no-one is sure when, or if, they are being observed. The worker’s conscientiousness to their task in hand is prompted in part, by the constant sentiment of being watched by others. Using the open-plan office as a site for exhibition further draws upon the different layers of looking at work in the space. As the visiting public observe the works on show the office employers are further exposed to their gaze and in turn, openly observe the stream of visitors to their working environment. With the changing décor brought by the ‘Rotate’ programme employees are continuingly reminded of the different strands of work undertaken by the Contemporary Art Society, and their role within an organisation that promotes the acquisition and viewing of artworks and the development of public collections.
In relation to Hogarth’s print suite, Bureau presents a selection of contemporary works that create associations with, or expand upon the themes ‘Industry and Idleness’ (for example, the enthusiasm or despondency of the worker, the physicality and potential intensity inherent within acts of labour, the oppressive or inspiring environment of the workplace, the Christian morality of the worker and the competitive drive of the contemporary office environment) creating a multi-layered reflection on ideals of a working life that takes into account varying readings of labour. Indeed, the development of an artist’s practice presents a further facet of work – the process and realisation of the artwork is not easily categorised into the binary ideals of the title.
This contribution to the ‘Rotate’ programme provides a reflection on different associations of both the working environment and the human condition, from the struggle for motivation, value or inspiration often encountered by the contemporary worker, to the layout and design of the workspace as a key factor in efficiency and productivity, to commentary on morality, debauchery, industriousness and idleness.
The use of the Whitworth Art Gallery’s historic collection by Bureau as a catalyst for the selection of works by contemporary artists comes at a time of dramatic cuts within arts funding and can perhaps be read as one strategy for uniting historical and contemporary collections, public and private organisations, alongside acting as testament to the invaluable work of the Contemporary Art Society.
Industry & Idleness 