DEAR SALARYMAN
Allegra Pacheco
May 20 (Sat) - June 17 (Sat), 2023
Growing up in Costa Rica I always had felt I needed to escape the small town I lived in to make it as an artist.
I moved to NY to be a photographer, but I ended up making a living in post-production for fashion retouching. Working in an office was the exact opposite of what I set out to do.
After a couple of years, my visa got denied and I was forced to leave New York. On a whim, I gathered all my savings and flew to Tokyo.
I was drawn to salarymen immediately. The way they moved through the city looked to me like an army of men in suits.
I was stunned when I learned it's frequent to see salarymen late at night sleeping on the sidewalk. When I first saw these men in suits just lying in the street, for a second, it looked like a murder scene. Like a corporate murder.
Upon asking the locals, they shrugged it off and pointed to the fact people get drunk and miss the last train. Though this seemed like a sound enough explanation, I felt there was more to the story.
I thought it was really interesting that it was common. And that it was so common that nobody found it interesting.
Somehow, I saw something of myself in them that reminded me of my work in NY… But I couldn’t quite place it because we’re so different...
At that point, I was already documenting salarymen in my street photography but I decided to take my investigation further. I wanted to get to know them better. So I shifted my focus to interviews… and not just after work, but in their homes, and in their lives.
By combining my photography/art background, and taking a leap into the unknown territory of filmmaking, I wanted to paint a broader and deeper picture of salaryman life.
I was obviously an outsider, but I was interested in what we had in common, especially how work had shaped our lives.
The first time I saw a salaryman lying on the street, I projected onto him all sorts of meanings.
As often happens with documentary films "the truth" is seldom a fixed conclusion, there are no concrete answers, and the investigation ultimately leads to a journey of self-discovery. Through documenting salarymen and pressing to understand their lived experience, I was able to find answers on a personal level. Learning from others, and investigating our differences and similarities is rich territory for dialogue. Since we spend most of our lives working, understanding the nature of and what it does to us and to our families is an important place to start. If we are unhappy with these answers we can then ask ourselves how we are willing to enact change for the better.
We are all salarymen in one way or another – that’s the truth.
A valuable lesson I learned in making this film was that when things feel dark, when we start to lose ourselves along the way, there are exits all around us, we just have to look for them.
Allegra Pacheco, 2023
Allegra Pacheco
Take the helm of yourself !
2020
Oil on canvas
162.0 x 162.0cm
63.8 x 63.8 inch
These five paintings depict the landscape that surrounds the salaryman's life and the world the artist was immersed in during her exploration of the subject matter.
With a background in both photography and fine art, the artist based these oil paintings on 35mm stills she took throughout her visits to film for her “Salaryman” documentary.
A digital sketch is printed onto the canvas and oil paint is applied on top, balancing the medium between photography, painting, and multimedia which is characteristic of the artist’s background in a variety of crafts and disciplines.
Depicted we see Pancake (okonomiyaki) mix, which the artist used for her performance outline, a stack of onigiri in a convenience store, some “office” toilette paper found in an izakaya, a street scene with giant robots in a street car, and a salaryman witnessing a show in the “Robot Cafe.”
Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN
2023
Lambda print
101.0 x 145.5 cm.
Edition 1 + AP 1
These three large prints show the performance piece the artist first created when approaching the salaryman subject in her practice.
Upon her first visit to Japan in 2012, the artist was surprised to see office workers sleeping in the street after late-night binge drinking sessions with their work colleagues.
New to the culture and ignorant to the salaryman culture the artist´s first impression was that the sleeping salarymen looked “like a murder scene. A corporate murder.”
As such, the artist decided to outline these “corporate murder victims” in a forensic fashion in order to point out the “crime” to the passersby that were accustomed to these types of scenes.
The artist decided once again to use Kombini products as her materials because convenience stores play a large role in the lives of salarymen who spend the majority of their waking life in the office and outside of their homes. Therefore the Kombini serves as a perfect venue to outfit most of the salarymen’s needs.
The use of pancake mix was deferred after an initial attempt at using chalk, which proved inadequate. Pancake mix is readily available in any convenience store, it spreads with ease and is gentle on the landscape, and causes no bodily harm or littering.
Allegra Pacheco
KAROSHI CARDS
2023
Ceramic
37.0 x 178.0 cm
Variable Size
Business cards play a giant role in the Japanese corporate world and a whole ecosystem of rules and etiquette exists in the display and presentation of cards that denote rank and status.
In this piece, the artist handcrafted a series of porcelain business cars for karoshi victims. Her choice of materials reflects both robust yet fragile aspects of human beings, specifically in relation to office workers, which when subjected to extreme conditions can cave under pressure.
The cards look worn, weather, as if they were discarded and uncared for, or left out in the rain. Some cards have names for officially recognized and certified karoshi victims, others are left blank.
Since Karoshi is a legal term, it is often difficult to prove under the strict parameters of the law, and indeed many people who have died from overwork remain unrecognized with their families left uncompensated for their loss, no fines for the perpetrating company and no change in company policy to prevent further victims.
It is often the case that families don’t wish to go through the additional trauma of facing legal battles and confront the stigma of shame which still exists in Japanese society.
Creating the cards was a laborious process. Porcelain is difficult to work with and requires handling with great care- from hand extruding to cutting and drying each individual piece, to bakin, machine, and later hand sanding, to once again firing and hand painting each victim’s name.
The taxing yet meditative nature of this process allowed the artist to connect with each card and therefore each individual victim, whether specific or unidentified and render homage to a life cut short due to grueling corporate policies that beg for revision.
Furthermore, the artist does not read or speak Japanese, so painting each card was a uniquely intimate act as she had to trace and retrace each character with great care and got to familiarize herself with every person’s unique kanji.
During the final baking stage, one card suffered damage and was split in two, this card was Matsuri Takahashi’s. The artist likes to think of this as having a loaded symbolic meaning because the artist cultivated a relationship with Matsuri’s mother, who has since her daughter’s passing, become a huge advocate for workplace reform.
The cards stand in a dark room, apart from the rest of the exhibition, in a meditative space, displayed initially in order which then gives way to a chaotic pile. On the left-hand corner of the room is a small shelf with post-it notes, iconic to any office scenario. The blank notes invite the viewer to share any message they wish to share, either to the victims, their families, politicians, or policymakers. When the show is finished each card will be scanned and created into a pdf that will be sent to centers of Karoshi outreach and victim’s families through the aid of Karoshio advocates the artist has met and forged relationships with during the filming of her documentary.
Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN
2023
Lambda print, Frame
Framed Size: 35.2 x 51.0 cm
Image Size: 29.5 x 45.2cm
Edition 3 + AP 1
Using materials available in the convenience store, the artist photographed salarymen using the classic kombini camera, a disposable 35mm flash 800 ISO camera.
Because of the ready availability, and the lightweight and unassuming character of the camera, it was a perfect vessel to shoot her subjects in the most inconspicuous and natural way possible.
This series of photos depicts a wide range of images that encompasses the salarymen and their unique world- whether a stack of papers piled on a desk, a pair of passed-out “Nominication” partners, or an older man commuting to his Shinbashi office- this series summarizes in a graphic and succinct way a day in the life of a regular salaryman.
Allegra Pacheco
PASMO DOG TAG
2023
Silver
35.0 x 5.0 cm.
Dog tags, commonly used to carry important information like name, address, blood type, and religious affiliation (or lack thereof) are worn around soldier’s necks in case of an accident.
Similarly, IC cards are always in the wallets of office workers, who typically spend incalculable hours commuting to and from work. Entirely made of silver, the “platinum” aspect of these tags alludes to status signaling, as in when a big consumer is awarded a “platinum card” for their value as a customer. This is a platinum commuter card for extreme commuters.
The dog tags are hanging in the center of a Hinomaru, which also looks like a target or a “bulls-eye.”
Allegra Pacheco
Noren
2023
Linocut on cloth
87.5 x 80.0cm x 3 pieces
Variable Size
Noren or fabric room dividers, typical at the entrance of food and drink establishments-mainly restaurants and Izakayas- are symbolic of Japanese craft and attention to detail. They function as a sort of original advertisement, using decorative pictorial elements to signal and provide information about the establishment´s content.
For this artwork, the artist depicts aspects of salaryman culture to separate the two rooms in the exhibition. The viewer will note the first room (the white cube) relates to salaryman culture as a whole, whilst the black room relates more to the nightlife experienced by the artist whilst exploring Tokyo for her night shoots and whilst creating her outline performance.
The designs depicted in the Noren are;
-
A laptop with a Hinomaru, an analogy that links working the Japanese identity to their industrious working culture.
2. An open briefcase, indicative of a life dedicated to almost entirely work (but at what cost)?
3. A noose- at first graphically similar to the aesthetic depicted in traditional Noreen iconography, yet simultaneously alluding to deep-rooted working culture problematics like death by overwork.
Again, the artist uses an alternative method to create the Noren. Instead of using the dye-resist technique, she worked with a block printing method called lino-cut, where labels of linoleum are carved with carving utensils and then used to create a stamp to print out the design.
Allegra Pacheco
Kimono
2023
Silkscreen on cloth and military badges
79.0 x 128.0 cm
Variable Size
The kimono, traditional clothing for the samurai and bushi is replaced nowadays with a western suit.
In this piece, the artist merges past tradition and contemporary customs in a kimono that displays a laptop image on its back. On display on the laptop’s screen is a Hinomaru. The laptop is outlined by a cresting moon, alluding to overtime work.
Juxtaposing the rising sun and the rising moon the artist invites the viewer to ponder existing values within their society. Furthermore, she reinforces these opposites by presenting us with a handmade kimono, printed with silkscreen technique instead of the traditional indigo dye-resist, alluding to how similar external results don’t necessarily follow the process. Traditional values can often be discarded for the sake of efficiency and end results, yet behind the tradition is the original source, we can see this in the fact that silkscreen produces an external similar visual, but the inside of the kimono does not display the same design (as it would with dye resist).
Continuing the theme of comparing samurai to office workers, instead of placing the traditional “Kamon” or family crest in the kimono lapels, the artist applies vintage reproductions of military brass pins used in the now inexistent Japanese navy and army.
Allegra Pacheco
Regain
2023
Boxes of energy drinks and wood
102.0 x 142.5 x 40.0 cm
Regain, a famous energy drink in the 80s at the height of the salaryman culture (before the economic bubble burst) used samurai, bushi, and other heroic warrior archetypical figures as strong comparisons for businessmen in their advertisements.
The strain fighters, never wavering in their tasks, destroying opponents whilst conquering the world were transformed into salarymen who successfully won battles in the office. To further push the comparison, the music of these iconic commercials was fashioned in the style of war chants and artillery music.
Placed within their boxes, these packaged energy drinks are stacked in the shape of a staircase, signaling the “corporate ladder.” From deep inside the boxes we can hear the war chants of the regain advertisement coming from a stereo hidden inside the boxes.
A slight not to the “glass ceiling” that exists in the corporate world for women, is a secondary thematic, as the artist within her practice and exploration of the salaryman world found engrained inequality within most of the traditional companies. Furthermore, the fact that the artist is a female, her access to the subject matter was sometimes helped, sometimes hindered by her gender.
Allegra Pacheco
NEWSPAPERS
2023
Newspaper, wood bars, strings
110.0 x 76.0 x 41.0 cm.
Another iconic symbol of the busy salaryman is the newspaper. On any given weekday you can find rows of salarymen lined up buying and reading newspapers in a newspaper stand. For this piece, the artist used snippets of her documentary film’s interview transcripts, quotes, and other text to make a fan-zine style newspaper with the use of the artist´s salaryman series photographs.
This work functions as a double art piece, in its singular form, ie 1 newspaper, the work is cheap, affordable, and within reach for everyone. Bringing humor and levity while creating affordable artwork for less prominent buyers the artist aims to democratize a fraction of the art world by always including an art piece within the reach of the regular consumer.
As a collective, when the works are mounted within the confines of a gallery, the piece becomes a sculpture and takes on the cultural baggage of ready-made.
Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN HAIKU
2023
Carbon on invoice paper
164.5 x 24.0 x 31.0 cm
For this piece, the artist followed the rules for creating a haiku poem. The title of the show comes from the poem which she created as a tribute to office workers. The poem is a mono-print, printed using red tracing paper, onto a continuous stream of standard dot matrix invoice papers.
Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN HAIKU
2023
Sward, briefcase
Sward: 23.0 x 43.0 x 14.0cm
Briefcase: 55.5 x 45.0 x 6.5cm
Edition 3 + AP 2
The katana is probably the most emblematic symbol of the bushi or samurai.
A briefcase is probably just as iconic in the symbology of the salaryman and office worker.
Intermixed in modern narratives is the common portrait of salarymen as “modern samurai” working for the collective good of the company.
The choice in this specific katana is incidental, as this sword is specific for “seppuku” or suicide by disembowelment for dishonorable causes.
The briefcase was donated by the gallerist’s father, a retired salaryman, who after being diagnosed with stomach cancer in his 50s, decided to veer his life more towards the arts and founded GALLERY MoMo.
Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN DRAWING PERFORMANCE
2023
Video, Mini DV camera, disposal camera
2'32"
Edition 3 + AP 2
This is a performance video in that Pacheco draws the outline of drunk people who slept on the street with the white powder and an installation of the tools that she used.
Mini DV Camera;
This camera was used by the artist to document her day-to-day with a visual diary during her filming of the “Salaryman” documentary. Chosen for its low-if aesthetic and portable nature the mini DV was also used to shoot point-of-view outlines, which provide the viewer with a very real experience of how up close and personal outlining a sleeping salaryman felt for the artist.
Disposable Camera;
The artist chose this camera for documenting all aspects of salaryman life. Light and unassuming, this camera is commonly found in convenience stores around Tokyo, and used by tourists. For this reason, it was an ideal camera for being as inconspicuous as possible.
Because of its limited capacity for shooting in low-lit environments, flash was almost always employed, further tightening the visual aesthetic to street photography icons, specifically Weegee- famous for shooting crime scenes in New York in the early 1900s
Pancake Mix;
Used in her performance piece in replacement for the traditional chalk outlines in crime scenes. The artist replaces chalk for powder so as not to wake up the sleeping subjects and to tie the working materials to the convenience store, which became the artist´s material supply shop by default.
used for the performance.
Mini DV Camera;
This camera was used by the artist to document her day-to-day with a visual diary during her filming of the “Salaryman” documentary. Chosen for its low-if aesthetic and portable nature the mini DV was also used to shoot point-of-view outlines, which provide the viewer with a very real experience of how up close and personal outlining a sleeping salaryman felt for the artist.
Disposable Camera;
The artist chose this camera for documenting all aspects of salaryman life. Light and unassuming, this camera is commonly found in convenience stores around Tokyo, and used by tourists. For this reason, it was an ideal camera for being as inconspicuous as possible.
Because of its limited capacity for shooting in low-lit environments, flash was almost always employed, further tightening the visual aesthetic to street photography icons, specifically Weegee- famous for shooting crime scenes in New York in the early 1900s
Pancake Mix;
Used in her performance piece in replacement for the traditional chalk outlines in crime scenes. The artist replaces chalk with powder so as not to wake up the sleeping subjects and to tie the working materials to the convenience store, which became the artist´s material supply shop by default.
Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN OUTLINE
2023
White Powder
The real-size outline is a simulation of an outdoor outline made by the artist in her performance piece. For this specific piece, the artist asked the gallerist to make an outline of her using the same materials as were used in the performance, adding to the work a slight nod to the complex relationship between artist and art industry, art and patron, and the relationship between creative works and works made for profit.
The artist will draw the white outline of you and take two photos (with/without you) with a polaroid camera.