Work & Progress

Work & Progress creates a portrait community of workers who, by the very nature of who and where they are, exemplify work and progress.  The community is one of workers engaged in what it takes to realize a unified approach to transit for downtown Kansas City.

To create the work, m.o.i., in the early part of the summer, embedded along Kansas City’s 2-mile streetcar construction zone. Here the artist probed the intersections of change, disruption, and labor. During this time there were street disruptions, detours, water main replacements, tracks laid, holes dug, not to mention electrical, storm-water, and fiber-optic lines relocated, repair shops build, and lots of adjacent economic development. And workers. Many workers. Doing many tasks. Downtown.

It’s a grand experiment that includes progress and is shaped by workers. What does that look and feel like in the summer? In the summer of 2015 in Kansas City? Regardless of how one feels about light rail, you have to support the workers. The community portrait will then be reflected back into the urban environment to enlarge the space for inclusivity, revelry, and community understanding of both workers and the nature of progress.

Location

These portraits will be featured on the windows of the Jenkins Building on Walnut, south of 12th Street.

Bio

m.o.i., AKA The Minister of Information, is as a much public servant as an artist.  In that regard, he frequently makes work that pushes against entrenched institutional and cultural indifference, complacency, and thought, with the goal of provoking mindful, behavioral change. His work origins derive from the intersection of middle-class economics, progressive politics, and many years of applied environmental science research.