Sam Holden
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Artist's Statement

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‘Tabards embroided with lions and unicorns swing from your shoulders; metal objects cut in star shapes or in circles glitter and twinkle upon your breasts. Ribbons of all colours – blue, purple, crimson – cross from shoulder to shoulder. After the comparative simplicity of your dress at home, the splendour of your public attire is dazzling.’
Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas, 1938

The Path of Least Resistance

In 2007, during an extended trip to Tokyo, Osaka & Miyazaki, I was struck by the number
of Japanese public workers whose low-skilled jobs require them to wear uniforms that often incorporate hats, epaulettes, brass buttons and crests; roadwork attendants, security guards, builders, transport workers, road-sweepers, amongst many others.

I read the employment of these uniforms, and their ubiquity within public spaces, as a
form of vocational stratification; clearly identifying the constant from the transient within
the metropolis. In addition to investing the wearer with the necessary degree of power,
the uniform serves to designate which areas of the city are public and which are not,
subsequently manipulating the movement of people within the urban environment.

The 18 portraits in the series mirror the effect of the subjects’ uniforms, they are
subjugated by the camera; their personalities removed, leaving only their public attire
for consumption. With the addition of a dozen cityscapes and street-details, ‘The Path
of Least Resistance’ aims to explore the flow of humanity through one of the world’s most densely populated areas; through provoking comparison, it becomes as much a discussion
of our own social landscape as it is an insight into another.

Sam Holden © 2008