Michael Landy: Scrapheap Services [plastic cut-out figure from the installation in Leeds]
1996
You can find out about Scrapheap Services, the fictitious cleaning
company 'that cares because you don't', by looking at the books,
videos and artist's file in the library. The installation showed
thousands of little figures like this one being disposed of by means
of a range of 'people-control products' with the strong corporate
identity of Scrapheap Services. While described by most as social
and political satire, it has also been seen as an expression of the
artist's terror of finding himself - and his work - redundant: the
fear of many workers. I took this particular figure from the
installation when it was shown at the Electric Press building in
Leeds - appropriately a disused building. I call him Flash (guess
why!). He lives in the artist's file.
