Means of Production

May 18-July 31, 2024

Means of Production

“Production asserts itself as the principle behind a new distribution of the sensible insofar as it unites, in one and the same concept, terms that are traditionally opposed: the activity of manufacturing and visibility. Manufacturing meant inhabiting the private and lowly space-time of labor for sustenance. Producing unites the act of manufacturing with the act of bringing to light, the act of defining a new relationship between making and seeing.”

On Art and Work, Jacques Rancière

Inspired by the history of Sheerly Touch-Ya (est. 1992) and Shisanwu (est. 2018), Means of Production is an independent project initiated by the Lunch Hour collective in 2023. The project brings together over 75 artists based in New York City and around the world to participate in a dynamic and thought-provoking dialogue concerning the intersections of art, labor, and power structures.

Sheerly Touch-Ya (Serena Chang’s family’s business) was founded in 1992 by her father, James Chang, a migrant from Taiwan to the United States. The brand manufactures new hosiery as well as up-cycles dead stock inventory. The styles and packaging show indexes of James' American dream — images conformed by the contours of technology, fashion, and cultural discourse over many decades. James learned the ropes of the hosiery business in a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which for a period of time became the esteemed studio of Urs Fischer. Serena’s seven-year tenure alongside Fischer in turn served as her apprenticing into the artistic and logistical world of sculpture fabrication, leading to the co-establishment of Shisanwu LLC. Both nestled in the warehouse at 74-12 88th Street, Queens, these entities (Sheerly Touch Ya and Shisanwu LLC) have become emblematic of the intricate symbiosis between art and fashion commerce.

For the first time in summer of 2024, the building will be open to a wider public inviting artists, creatives, thinkers, social workers, and activists to intervene, investigate, act, think, and turn the warehouse into a living art space over the course of eight weeks. The integration of materials from both art and fashion productions is intended to serve as a catalyst for dialogue to blur the boundaries between art and labor, materialism and conceptualism. Together, these newly created works will reimagine alternative modes and strategies of collaboration, solidarity, and resistance within the context of an increasingly accelerated global capitalist landscape.