The Hand of the Desert and Monument to the Drowned
Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal has produced two giant hand sculptures located in strange places. The first hand sculpture, The Hand of the Desert, is located deep in the the Atacama desert in Chile. The hand was constructed at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level. The work has a base of iron and cement, and stands 11 meters tall. The second hand, Monument to the Drowned, is a sculpture of five fingers partially submerged in sand, located at Brava Beach in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
This machine allows anyone to work for minimum wage for as long as they like. Turning the crank on the side releases one penny every 4.97 seconds, for a total of $7.25 per hour. This corresponds to minimum wage for a person in New York. This piece is brilliant on multiple levels, particularly as social commentary. Without a doubt, most people who started operating the machine for fun would quickly grow disheartened and stop when realizing just how little they’re earning by turning this mindless crank. A person would then conceivably realize that this is what nearly two million people in the United States do every day…at much harder jobs than turning a crank. This turns the piece into a simple, yet effective argument for raising the minimum wage.
Violence & Silence: Jackson Katz, Ph.D at TEDxFiDiWomen (by TEDxTalks)
