JOIN THE PROFESSIONALS

22.03.2025 - 06.04.2025

studiya.
Chengpa-ro 443, 2-dong, Seoul, South Korea

Exhibition Text/展示文

英文

Part showroom, part storage room the gallery space of studiya. functions as a recruitment center, an active site of induction into the speculative workforce, navigating questions of corporate identity and invisible hierarchies. Showcasing the aesthetics of labor, it becomes apparent that these are never neutral. Individualisation in the workplace might seem as a means of individual expression, yet it seems to merely be a form of self-discipline. Under the guise of self-definition, it operates as a mechanism of control, instructing the ways individuals position themselves within corporate structures.

JOIN THE PROFESSIONALS examines the shifting landscape of corporate identity through the lens of clothing. Over the past decades, the uniform of labourers has steadily eroded, replaced by an illusion of individuality that masks the deepening weight of systemic structures. The burden of cohesion, once externalised through strict dress codes and visible hierarchies, is now placed on the worker. Employees must construct and maintain their own professional personas, curating an image of competence, ambition, and adaptability in accordance with shifting corporate expectations. But in the absence of a formal dress code, hierarchy does not disappear—it simply retreats into an invisible and more insidious game of internal positioning.

In response, ENTERPRISE proposes the return of the corporate uniform—not as a regression, but as a deliberate act of structural clarity. Borrowing from the military concept of fatigues—work garments that, through repeated use, bear the weight of labor—corporate fatigues offer an explicit framework for hierarchy, stripping away the deceptive rhetoric of flattened structures. When dress codes were abandoned, power did not dissolve; it simply became harder to locate, embedded in self-imposed performances of competence, taste, and status. The contemporary worker, under the guise of freedom, is left to navigate an unwritten system of coded markers—subtle displays of ambition, alignment, and belonging—where hierarchy is omnipresent yet unspoken.

By reinstating the uniform, ENTERPRISE makes power dynamics visible once again. In doing so, it removes the burden of self-regulation and exposes the mechanics of authority, making professional hierarchies explicit rather than concealed within performative corporate cultures. Without the illusion of flat structures, power is no longer negotiated through invisible social codes but asserted through clear, externalised markers of rank and role. The corporate uniform does not just signify position—it clarifies who holds authority and who follows, eliminating the ambiguity that allows power to operate unchecked. With hierarchy made visible, control is exercised openly rather than through silent exclusions or unwritten expectations. The terms of engagement are at least clear.

Lark Ring and Taiga Nakazaki

Partners/パートナー

Curation:｛｝(cacco）

Space Design: STUDIO DODI

Production: Mooney OHTA, Ryota Kawaguchi

Organization: studiya.