Jake

Artist Susie J. Lee (born 1972)

Date2013

MediumHigh-definition video portrait

Dimensions50 × 34 × 4 in. (127 × 109.2 × 10.2 cm)
Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds

ClassificationsTime-Based Media

Credit LineCourtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

On View

Not on view

Collections

Art on Loan

Label TextThe subjects are workers in the oil and natural gas "fracking" industry in North Dakota, where the artist was born. She asked them to sit silently for her video camera for up to 30 minutes at a time.
The videos may cause you to feel uncomfortable—even voyeuristic—as they compel you to keep watching. But the images may also open a space for shared humanity and empathy. The workers moved from all over the country to a desolate region, seeking the new jobs and promised fortune of a booming industry. These portraits ask you to share an intimate moment with these people, lending human faces to a national headline.