Jeet Malhotra, Workers forming a human chain to pour concrete manually at a building site in Chandigarh, India, ca. 1953. Gelatin silver print on paper, 7.6 × 7.6 cm. ARCH264665 Pierre Jeanneret Fonds, CCA. Gift of Jacqueline Jeanneret
The CCA has announced the launch of madskills: Self-Documenting Construction on Social Media, an exhibition and research project addressing the rising trend of self-documentation in construction work, which has led to a greater visibility of the industry, its workers, and their material culture.
Madskills, curated by Hester Keijser, CCA curator of photography and new media, juxtaposes a cross-section of short clips with materials documenting the development of the modern construction industry from the CCA collection of photographs, including views by David Graham Powrie of Das Canoas House in Rio de Janeiro (1953?1954) and of the Palace of Agriculture in São Paulo (1953?1954) under construction; or Pierre Jeanneret’s views of construction workers in Chandigarh (1952?1966). “As younger generations equipped with smartphones and internet savvy enter the construction industry, social media is becoming increasingly popular among contractors, operators, and tradespeople. They film themselves at work, their environment, the machinery they use, the skills they showcase, and the local construction techniques they employ, and share their observations on digital platforms like Instagram and TikTok,” said the CCA.
“By doing this...