Anthony Adcock

Lives and works in Chicago, IL, USA

Artist statement

Working as a Local #1 Ironworker has undoubtedly altered my perception of labor and its relationship to value. Similar to artists, Ironworkers place great value on the process of creating. They laboriously build with pride, installing structural steel to reinforce buildings and bridges. Unlike artists, their “artwork” is concealed under concrete or hidden behind walls. Their work does not accrue cultural capital, nor does it generate discourse around deconstructing the previous model of postremodernism. The structures remain unnoticed and unrecognized as art by passers-by. Connotations of union workers, along with denotations of art, has led me to create works that generate experiences similar to that of a job-site, mimicking specific moments of the construction process via trompe l’oeil painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and video. The illusionistic quality of the artwork allows the art to be easily overlooked and mistaken for found-objects or ready-mades, imitating the aforementioned workers’ dilemma. High-rise buildings require years of work by hundreds of workers, with no credit given to individual workers. It is difficult to understand why workers are acknowledged in one field and not the other.

Artwork