Operator

Works in Jan’s Totems series present icons, objects, and scenes as metaphors for reflection on current events and themes relevant to contemporary living.

Operator is a reference to the path-breaking post-modern work of Marcel Duchamp and his readymades, which paved the way for all of Pop art by linking the physical form of a work with the ideas behind it, and establishing the artist’s process, thinking, and will as material for creating meaningful art.

Following Duchamp’s lead, this New York City payphone is a totem for the advent of communication through technology, and all the evolutionary change that entails, as well as reflecting on the vest changes that have taken place in that technology since the days of the payphone, to today’s digital communications of cloud computing, as we step toward what Jan calls ‘our fully-distributed society.’