Cake

Cake is a site-specific installation commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, was presented in an empty clothing store near New York City's Chinatown—then the heart of the city’s garment industry. Carlson/Strom collaborated with garment union members from UNITE HERE (formerly the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, ILGWU) to create this work. Nine life-size videos of garment workers were projected onto the walls of this high-end retail space, where clothing had once been displayed.  The design of CAKE leveraged the material and psychological tactics of retail marketing—strategies that shape consumer desire—to establish a direct relationship between the laborers and the consumer/spectator. The installation blurred the boundaries between commerce and labor, highlighting the often, invisible work that sustains the fashion industry. Unexpectedly, the performers themselves created an ongoing public ritual or action. They brought groups of colleagues, friends, and family members into the exhibition, where they reenacted their video performances live in front of the projections. This act of live re-performance energized the installation, intensifying its confrontational message and deepening its engagement with the ethical complexities facing contemporary consumers.