“Workshop of the World” is a diptych set of rugs created at a 2021 residency for installation at the historic Glen Foerd estate. Inspired by Rodin’s Gates of Hell, one rug refers to the interior spaces of Glen Foerd, while the other depicts Northeast Philadelphia and the setting of the former Vici Kid leather factory. They hang as gates for visitors to pass through, with small cutouts that mimic the doors of the Polish Catholic church in Bridesburg.
Most of the figures in the rugs are laborers. Referencing Eastern Orthodox icons such as the “Last Judgment,” the working-class characters bear halos and struggle upwards on a moral climb toward heaven. They dutifully act out a Protestant fetishization of labor that equates work ethic with redemption and godliness—but only for those whose class condition requires them to work in the first place.