Worlds of Work

Relative Strength

"Relative Strength" by the Austrian artists Ruth Anderwald and Leonhard Grond is the fourteenth billboard exhibition in the course of the exhibition series "Worlds of Work" by museum in progress in cooperation with the Vienna Chamber of Labour. The exhibition was presented from March – May 2005 in front of the buildings of the Vienna Chamber of Labour (1040 Wien, Prinz Eugenstraße 20–22 and 
Plößlgasse 13). The work was also presented in the daily newspaper DER STANDARD and on INFOSCREENs in the Vienna subway-system.

"Relative strength" is a common term in the stock-market world. It is a measure of how the price of a particular share has changed in comparison to the development of the market as a whole, as represented by a share index. "Relative strength" is an indication of whether the performance of a share has been stronger or weaker than that of the share index and thereby also indicates the value of a share, which is not only determined by economic or political factors but also by psychological factors.

The artists Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond intersperse private portraits with diagrams of share indexes, which are interpreted on a human scale. The photos are not taken from everyday working life but from leisure time, where one usually relaxes from work. Anderwald + Grond are not asking about the performance and value of shares but about the condition and well-being of the "human resources". How are individual people doing in a work environment regimented by economic values?

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