Charissa Lucille

machinemachine, a poignant critique of labor under U.S. capitalism and its traumatic impacts, opens March 1 at The Trunk Space in Phoenix, Arizona. Quilter Charissa Lucille has worked almost 20 jobs in almost 20 years, from janitorial service to director-level positions, and often worked 2-3 jobs concurrently to survive. As a neurodivergent and disabled person who worked in “essential positions,” through the 2008 recession and, recently, through the ongoing pandemic, Lucille felt compelled to explore labor under capitalism during a time where corporations are making record profits. They used fabric and shapes to evaluate the complexities of the trauma they endure to receive an almost livable wage, including themes like abuse in the workplace, labor by those who live in prisons, COVID-19 precautions, food apartheid, and the infinity of the machine. They aim to connect in solidarity to others who have experienced trauma as a result of capitalistic labor.

On view for May & June, 2024 at Songbird Coffee & Tea House (812 N 3rd St, Phoenix, AZ 85004). Originally was on display at the Trunk Space for the month of March 2024 with an opening reception and closing reception.

This series is individually funded by Lucille and no artworks are for sale. Lucille acknowledges the privilege of employment and acknowledges the intricacies and contradictions of working under extractive capitalist systems. This is an ongoing series that will be displayed in multiple locations throughout 2024.

Follow along at @charissalucille for progress and announcements!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

To begin discussing machinemachine, I need to first acknowledge the complexities of capitalism, the web of intentionally harmful legislation, and histories unspoken.

There are ongoing genocides around the world, and capitalism and its intricacies significantly impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color along with trans women, gender nonconforming people, and disabled and immigrant people. 

Black and Brown people have labored to help educate me on these issues, and their time and resources need to be highly honored in this work. 

There’s irony in my critique of capitalism while using statistics that come from our very own government, controlled media, and the nonprofit industry. These stats might not accurately reflect the depth of these struggles, so I’ve done my best to pull current information from a variety of places and sources. I also did my best to find more stats from the U.S., but some data sets are globally based or state-specific. 

This series focuses on labor under U.S. capitalism, but labor conditions across the globe are often unbearable and occur under extreme situations and/or forced genocide. 

This series offers no alternatives or solutions but rather aims to prompt consideration, knowledge, and discussion.

While viewing, please consider what you see and read. Please consider how the machine causes homogeneity and how that sanitizes, whitewashes, and erases culture, art, and many forms of revolution. Look closely at the shapes, colors, fabrics, and materials used in this series and ponder their meaning. Speak to someone you know about this series. Please note these quilts are made by the hands of a disabled person. 

THIS IS AN ONGOING, TRAVELING, AND EXPERIMENTAL SERIES THAT WILL BE DISPLAYED IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE VALLEY IN 2024.

ALL ARTWORKS ARE NOT FOR SALE BY WAY OF USD. INQUIRE FOR TRADE OPTIONS.

ALL ARTWORKS WERE FUNDED DIRECTLY BY CHARISSA LUCILLE AND WERE NOT SUPPORTED BY ANY EXTERNAL FUNDERS.

Our food systems and the labor that supports them in the U.S. serve the ultra wealthy while many people go hungry. This quilt addresses Food Apartheid, the 44 million people in the U.S. who are food insecure, and the fact that our fruits and vegetables are far less nutritional than they used to be. 

This quilt’s six baskets represent the following food issues: 

In 2024, nearly 40 percent of America’s infants participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). They’re struggling to fund the program due to steep increases in eligible participants. 

73 percent of agricultural workers are Immigrants who pick our food and are often exposed to inhumane working conditions for deeply inadequate pay.  

120 billion pounds of food are discarded annually in the U.S., which is the equivalent of 130 billion meals.

Houston’s Food Not Bombs volunteers have been served almost 100 citations since March 2023 for feeding people. Many similar instances are happening in cities across the U.S.

From 2015 to 2022, the number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws rose by 283 percent, and recently, 100 children were found to be illegally employed in hazardous overnight jobs at meat packing facilities. 

This last basket is for the food industry workers who are below poverty level and are hungry and at risk of houselessness. For example, fast food workers make up 11 percent of all houseless workers in California.

According to the “Experiences of violence and harassment at work: A global first survey,” published in 2022 -

Violence and harassment at work is a widespread phenomenon around the world, with more than one in five (22.8 percent or 743 million) persons in employment having experienced at least one form of violence and harassment at work during their working life. Among people who had experienced violence and harassment at work, about one-third (31.8 percent) said they had experienced more than one form, with 6.3 percent having faced all three forms in their working life:

Nearly one in ten (8.5 percent or 277 million) persons in employment has experienced physical violence and harassment at work in their working life. Men were more likely than women to report experiencing physical violence and harassment.

Psychological violence and harassment was the most common form of violence and harassment reported by both men and women, with nearly one in five (17.9 percent or 583 million) people in employment experiencing it in their working life.

One in fifteen (6.3 percent or 205 million) people in employment has experienced sexual violence and harassment at work in their working life. Women were particularly exposed to sexual violence and harassment at work. The data around sexual violence and harassment demonstrate the largest gender difference by far (8.2 percent of women compared to 5.0 percent of men) among the three forms of violence and harassment.

In 2022, Richard Johnson estimated 300,000 workers died as a result of COVID.

Worker safety and public health agencies did not protect frontline workers adequately. That these protections disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic workers shows how these failures exacerbated underlying racial and economic inequalities in the US.4-8.

• COVID-19 disproportionately affected workers who had to leave home and go to work to keep society functioning.

• Low-wage Black and Hispanic workers were disproportionately represented among workers who could not work from home, and disproportionately affected.

• Actions by U.S. occupational and public health agencies fell far short of what was needed to make workplaces safe during the pandemic.

• Protecting worker health in the next pandemic requires action now for paid family and medical leave, better social supports, and better workplace protection policies.

This quilt honors the disabled people who cannot work (prior to COVID, and now because of COVID); ableism intersects with racism to the detriment of People of Color. Disabled people who can work often receive extremely low wages and cannot earn over a certain amount because it puts their disability status at risk.

While viewing this quilt, I encourage you to consider the following: 

“In a 2022 article, Zeira concluded that policies intrinsic to neoliberal capitalism have driven the worsening American rates of ‘mental illness, life expectancy, infant mortality, obesity, children’s educational performance, teenage births, homicides, imprisonment rates, and social mobility.’ She points to the neoliberal malaise of rising income inequality as the specific force driving this negative trajectory.”

I suggest reading The Love Post’s two-part series (PART 1, PART 2) on capitalism to assess what cost you’re willing to experience to continue supporting these systems.

“They are among America’s most vulnerable laborers. If they refuse to work, some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to solitary confinement. They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. Almost all of the country’s state and federal adult prisons have some sort of work program, employing around 800,000 people, the report said. It noted the vast majority of those jobs are connected to tasks like maintaining prisons, laundry or kitchen work, which typically pay a few cents an hour if anything at all. And the few who land the highest-paying state industry jobs may earn only a dollar an hour.” - “Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands,” AP News

Additional art by people who lived in prison on labor and the economy: 

Apokaluptein: 16389067 by Jesse Krimes 

I am the Economy by James Yaya Hough

From the ongoing slaughter and displacement of Gazans to the residential schools and the mass graves located on those sites, the U.S. has a marked role in genocide locally and globally, and our working class labor, taxes, and compliancy fuels it. 

I encourage you to take time to contemplate the role the U.S. plays in the following:

The enslavement of African peoples.

The genocide of indigenous tribes. 

The ongoing surveillance, control, and damage to Tribal people and land. 

The blind eye for #MMIWG2S.

The genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.

The continued occupation of Hawaiian land and military bomb testing of Polynesian islands like the Marshall Islands and Bikini Atoll.

The ongoing occupation of Puerto Rico. 

The involvement in Burma. 

The war in Vietnam.

The war in the Philippines.

The silent genocide in Congo.

The ongoing bombing in Yemen.

The ongoing bombing in Lebanon.

This machine’s ability to prey upon people feels infinite.

May freedom and sovereignty be achieved in our lifetime.