Brett Wallace's Solo Show Critiques Amazon's Labor Practices Through Art

Brett Wallace's solo exhibition 'If This, Then What' ran from October 3 to November 6, 2016, at ART 3/Silas Shabelewska Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The show featured laser-cut Amazon boxes inscribed with corporate aphorisms like 'Your margin is my opportunity' and 'Growth mindset,' salvaged from city curbsides and shipped to the gallery. Wallace's work explores the intersection of digital and physical labor, highlighting Amazon's algorithmic control in fulfillment centers, where worker productivity is monitored and turnover exceeds 80% annually. Pieces included BS-i2-1.0_2016, a mixed-media assemblage with Amazon-branded items sealed in Plexiglas, and prints created using low-powered lasers on cardboard. The artist's parody startup, Amazing, mimics Amazon's visual language to critique corporate objectification. Wall-mounted artworks based on Pac-Man mazes and integrated circuit layouts reveal material imperfections, allegorizing the gap between digital ideals and real-world contingencies. Amazon's evolution from an online bookstore to a mega-corporation with ventures like grocery delivery and drone-based shipping is contextualized, emphasizing the unseen workforce behind its digital facade. The exhibition addresses the tension between lived experience and digital immateriality in late-capitalist systems.