Modern Times

Stop & Shop is unique amongst regional chains; the workers are unionized. In 2019, the workers went on strike for wages, health care premiums, and pension benefits. After 10 days, Stop & Shop acceded to the union’s demand, leading to a three-year worker-friendly contract.

In the four years since the strike, Stop & Shop has adopted both obvious and insidious automation. The more transparently calculated transformation is the installation of self-checkout machines, which are terrible. The most conspicuous introduction of automation is the robot that stalks the supermarket aisles.

Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 masterpiece of semi-silent film, Modern Times, captures the meat grinder of depression era America. The movie depicts dehumanizing work, antagonistic automation, and the perils of an indifferent state. Wouldn’t it be nice if the struggle for fair work was history?

Zach Horn is an interdisciplinary artist, focused on divergent methodologies in drawing, stop-motion animation, and social practice. He has exhibited in numerous solo museums, galleries and academic institutions throughout the United States and abroad. Zach Horn received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from Boston University. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he teaches art.