Carey Young (b.\u202f1970, Lusaka, Zambia) is a British-American visual artist based in London. Her multi\u2010media practice\u2014encompassing video, photography, text, performance and installation\u2014critically interrogates how language, law, corporate systems, power, and gender shape contemporary life. Young has made significant contributions to discussions around language’s influence on culture and its role in maintaining social hierarchies. Her work is grounded in a belief that art can unearth, critique, and even transform the seemingly invisible structures that govern modern life, from the corporate office to the courtroom. Young\u2019s practice is deeply interdisciplinary, frequently blending performative elements with visual art forms to challenge viewers\u2019 perceptions of societal norms and power structures.<\/p>\n
Business as Usual<\/i> is a multifaceted work that delves into the dynamics of power, language, and authority within the corporate world. Young uses a combination of installations, video works, and performances to engage with the formal, often impersonal, structures of business environments. In doing so, she critiques the normalization of corporate behavior and its pervasive influence on societal norms. A central theme of the project is the dissonance between the ostensibly neutral, efficient language of business and the hidden power dynamics it supports. By presenting the corporate world as a highly controlled and artificial construct,\u00a0Business as Usual<\/i>\u00a0seeks to expose how these environments manipulate identities, interactions, and even individual subjectivity. Through this lens, Young examines the performative aspects of corporate life, emphasizing how people often conform to roles that are predefined by systems of power, largely dictated by corporate structures.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The work is also a reflection on how the corporate world has infiltrated not just work environments but also broader cultural and personal spheres. Language\u2014both spoken and written\u2014is scrutinized for how it shapes social relations, influencing individuals to conform to certain behaviors, practices, and even ideologies. Young\u2019s approach emphasizes the contradictions inherent in this culture: the more “neutral” and “objective” the language appears, the more effectively it maintains the status quo of corporate power.<\/p>\n Business as Usual<\/i>\u00a0asks a fundamental question: how does corporate language shape who we are, how we interact, and the way we view the world?<\/p>\n She has exhibited widely, including at prominent institutions such as the Tate Modern, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Venice Biennale. Here other exhibitions include Counter Offer<\/em> (2009, The Power Plant, Toronto), Let the World Speak for Itself<\/em> (2013, Le Quartier, Quimper), Legal Fictions<\/em> (2013, Migros Museum f\u00fcr Gegenwartskunst, Zurich), The New Architecture<\/em> (2017, Dallas Museum of Art), Palais de Justice<\/em> (2017, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York), The Vision Machine<\/em> (2020, Kunsthal Aarhus), Appearance<\/em> (2023, Modern Art Oxford; 2024, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York), and Surfaces of Law<\/em> (2024, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York).<\/p>\n Business as Usual<\/em> is a Film and Video Umbrella Touring Exhibition curated in association with John Hansard Gallery. Supported by the National Touring Programme of the Arts Council of England, with additional funding from East England Arts and Year of the Artist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carey Young (b.\u202f1970, Lusaka, Zambia) is a British-American visual artist based in London. Her multi\u2010media practice\u2014encompassing video, photography, text, performance and installation\u2014critically interrogates how language, law, corporate systems, power, and gender shape contemporary life. Young has made significant contributions to discussions around language’s influence on culture and its role in maintaining social hierarchies. Her work…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","col-md-4 col-sm-6"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/keithwhittle.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/CareyYoung-2.jpeg?fit=672%2C448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4638"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4742,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4638\/revisions\/4742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithwhittle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}