evian is naive spelled backwards, 2015, double-sided archival inkjet print. Courtesy the artist and Microscope Gallery, New York. Supported by the Mondriaan Fund and CBK Rotterdam.
evian is naive spelled backwards (detail), 2015, double-sided archival inkjet print. Courtesy the artist and Microscope Gallery, New York. Supported by the Mondriaan Fund and CBK Rotterdam.
Eileen Maxson’s photographic project investigates globalization, consumerism, and anonymity through an intervention into Mechanical Turk, a website for outsourcing internet labor which is operated by Amazon. Maxson’s work set out to subvert Mechanical Turk’s strict policy of worker anonymity by paying them to capture self-portraits. In order to receive authentic responses from users, Maxson needed to request a portrait that would be “ungoogleable.” She arrived at a memory of a scene in the American cult film Reality Bites (1994) in which a character grabs a bottle of water and exclaims, “Evian is naïve spelled backwards!" Humor aside, for Maxson this moment has come to symbolize the interconnectedness of individuals, products, and labor. With that in mind, the artist asked the workers to photograph themselves outdoors with a group of friends and the words “evian” and “naive,” handpainted on a large piece of fabric or paper. The resulting fifty images are continuously printed on a 13-foot-long paper receipt, with the instructions and invoices for each user’s labor printed on the reverse side.
Eileen Maxson holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University (2008), a BFA from University of Houston (2002), and attended De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2008-2010). Maxson’s works have been screened and exhibited at Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2014), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (2014), the Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, NY (2013), Light Industry, Brooklyn, NY (2013), Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany (2011), Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY (2009), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2008), and Art in General, New York, NY (2008), FotoFest, Houston, TX (2008), Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Israel (2007), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2006), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico (2006), Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2003), among others. Writing on her work has appeared in Artforum, The Village Voice, Art Papers, ArtReview, The Houston Chronicle, PopMatters, The Houston Press and Metropolis M. Maxson has been awarded residencies at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, NY (2013-2014), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), New York, NY (2013), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2012-2013). Grants and awards include Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Artadia: The Fund for Art & Dialogue, New York, NY; The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; and Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Maxson is the first recipient of the Arthouse Texas Prize (2005).