From the series In-Voices, this work was performed on 26 June 2021 for the online symposium called Work and Working Through.

‘Thanks for waiting’ is a phrase often heard on automated messages during phone calls to public and private services, such as job centres and medical care. The reference to ‘precarious labour’ is made quite directly while also keeping the work ambiguous, open to interpretation.

The ‘voice’ in this video is ambiguous and anonymous, most obviously from the artist; however, who’s words are spoken remains ambiguous. He sounds as if someone else, as if an ‘other’ is speaking through the artist. Following an other’s orders.

As a kind of act of refusal, the (blunted) scalpel rubs and scratches the order-book but without making new marks. Refusing to add content – no marks, no letters, no writing – audiences listen and watch the artist trace over top lines found already on each page. Without work, waiting for work: what else to do but listen to the voice and melodies. Re-tracing nothing: nothing but orders that, as the pages appear, remain empty of content.