EILEEN MAXSON

EVIAN IS NAIVE SPELLED BACKWARDS, 2015
Double-Sided, Archival Inkjet Print,
3 x 160 inches

This project investigates globalization, consumerism, and anonymity through an intervention into Mechanical Turk, a website for outsourcing internet labor operated by Amazon. I began this work with a simple question: "Who are these (invisible) workers?" and set out to subvert the site's strict policy of worker anonymity by paying them to capture self-portraits.

However, in response to my first, admittedly naive job posting to "send a picture of yourself," I received, for the most part, random jpegs and images lifted from the web. So, I created "ungoogleable" instructions to prompt workers to really send portraits.

My memory of a scene in the film Reality Bites became those instructions. In the scene, a character grabs a bottle of water and, as an epiphany, exclaims, "Whoa, Evian is naïve spelled backwards!". The character then places the water on the counter, dancing to a song on the radio while a clerk tallies her purchase. Humor aside, this moment haunts and symbolizes something to me about individuals, products, and labor. So, I asked workers to photograph themselves with those words: evian, naive. 

A selection of images I received, eighty in total, and accompanying text are printed as a two-sided, adjoined, and absurdly long register receipt.

Evian is Naive Spelled Backwards is part of a larger body of work connected to Reality Bites.

Selected images from Evian is Naive Spelled Backwards, 2015.

Selected images from Evian is Naive Spelled Backwards, 2015.

Special thanks:
Mondriaan Fonds, Amsterdam
Centrum Beeldende Kunst (CBK), Rotterdam