Anthony Downey

Hans Haacke's photographs, presented here alongside a report essay for Ibraaz by Gulf Labor, explore the symbolic disjunction between the dreamscapes of the future and the often brutal realities that underwrite their construction. When we look more closely at globalization (alongside the ideological assumptions behind neo-liberal policies on deregulated, precarious labour), one of the more notable elements is the degree of outsourcing that is needed to maintain global systems of trade and development. In the images under consideration here there is a singular question being asked: what is it to live under the conditions of globalisation and deregulated labour? Or, more specifically, what is it to experience globalisation as an economic, social, historical and political fact of life – if not destructive influence on the security of those lives – rather than an abstract ideal or theoretical framework? However, and before we point the finger too forcibly, we should be ready to admit to a broader fact: the global art world is powered by precarious labour, whether it is the intern in a gallery in London or the worker producing an artwork in downtown Delhi or Shanghai. Precarity – as Guy Standing argues in The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011) – is and continues to be the order of the day for a whole new class of working individuals and communities across the globe. The images are presented here as works in their own right – a reflection on the realities of what a globalised culture looks like in real terms and what it is to endure its effects.