Subject: Work
What I Did/Do, Now/Then/Forever… (detail 1)

What I Did/Do, Now/Then/Forever… (detail 1)
27 x 40 in.
“What I Did/Do, On the Clock, Now/Then/Forever In the Eternal Return of Work”
Order ThisWhat I Did/Do, Now/Then/Forever…

What I Did/Do, Now/Then/Forever…
27 x 40 in.
“What I Did/Do, On the Clock, Now/Then/Forever In the Eternal Return of Work”
Order ThisWhat I Did/Do…pages

What I Did/Do…pages
Order ThisWhat I Did/Do…pages

What I Did/Do…pages
Order ThisWhat I Did/Do…pages

What I Did/Do…pages
Order ThisFake Damien Hirst Spot Painting

Fake Damien Hirst Spot Painting
24 x 36 in.
Consultant Dan Nelson offers a reasonably-priced copy of a Damien Hirst "spot" painting.
Clock in my head / Clock on the wall /…

Clock in my head / Clock on the wall / And the two of them / Don’t agree at all / Friday is heaven, Friday is heaven
8 (dia.) x 2 in.
I.S. Consultant Dan Nelson

I.S. Consultant Dan Nelson
8 x 10 in.
Consultant Dan Nelson (above, on assignment in Italy) has been with Imperial Services since 1998, when he founded the western Connecticut presence of the group. He brings two decades of experience in art and thirty years of service-based work. He offers services in the categories of Strategizing & Guidance, Self-Improvement, Oral Servicing, Love Life, Content Generation, and Heavy Lifting, among others.
Eilshemius

Eilshemius
Louis Michel Eilshemius was an artist and Renaissance man in the first half of the 20th century. Known primarily as a painter who was promoted by Marcel Duchamp, he was not shy about promoting his panoply of skills, which were presumably some combination of real and imagined. As an antidotal attitude to the specialist mentality of the 21st century, and as one who envisioned the self as containing multitudes, he is one of the spiritual forefathers of Imperial Services.
Imperial Services Office

Imperial Services Office
An Imperial Services office displaying a print of a Rorschach inkblot. Hermann Rorschach (1884 – 1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots that were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the subject's personality. His method has come to be referred to as the Rorschach test, iterations of which have continued to be used over the years to help identify personality, psychotic, and neurological disorders. Rorschach continued to refine the test until his premature death at age 37.
Founder Eugene Guarnieri

Founder Eugene Guarnieri
5 x 7 in.
Imperial Services was founded in 1956 in Chicago by Eugene Guarnieri (shown at right with an unidentified client), a semi-retired professor of psychology, amateur sculptor, and violist. As the child of a wealthy diplomat he traveled the world throughout his youth, living in Persia, Italy, Ethiopia, and Norway, eventually becoming fluent in five languages. After serving in in a secretive psy-ops division of the U.S. Army in World War II, Guarnieri taught at the University of Chicago, where he came into contact with an aesthetically rarefied world created by the educated and wealthy of the city. His social ties and savvy way with people eventually translated into informal consulting sessions held in upscale hotel bars, private clubs, museums, and homes.
Elysium

Elysium
16 x 20 in.
Read a Poem to a Client Over the Phone

Read a Poem to a Client Over the Phone
This is an example of one of the many services we can provide to clients of Imperial Services.
Imperial Services Logo and Tagline

Imperial Services Logo and Tagline
Imperial Services logo and tagline, designed ca. 1977, designer uncredited
Factory

Factory
22 x 24 x 2 in.
Summary 3

Summary 3
58 x 24 x 3 in.
Produced for the "Imagining Post-Capitalism" exhibition and event series at ProArts Gallery, Oakland, Calif., May 2018.
Summary 2

Summary 2
58 x 24 x 3 in.
Produced for the "Imagining Post-Capitalism" exhibition and event series at ProArts Gallery, Oakland, Calif., April 2018.
Summary 1

Summary 1
58 x 24 x 3 in.
Produced for the "Imagining Post-Capitalism" exhibition and event series at ProArts Gallery, Oakland, Calif., April 2018.
Company Culture

Company Culture
11 x 30 in.
A dreamcatcher for data capture
“Work Produce Consume Pollute” t-shirt by Custom Flotilla

“Work Produce Consume Pollute” t-shirt by Custom Flotilla
Order ThisMake An Artist A Millionaire: 400 to 1: Sanford Weill

Make An Artist A Millionaire: 400 to 1: Sanford Weill
Phase 4 of "Make an Artist a Millionaire" is called "400 to 1." It entails writing a letter to each of the people on the Forbes 400 list to solicit a donation. The project is more about sussing out human nature and understanding how to get through to the kind of person who, on the surface, couldn't be more different from the average artist: the business person. The same challenge of asking for something in return for nothing that exists on the lower end of the scale of quantity--$1--is amplified many times in approaching millionaires and billionaires.
Download ThisMake An Artist A Millionaire: 400 to 1: John Glen…

Make An Artist A Millionaire: 400 to 1: John Glen Sperling
Phase 4 of "Make an Artist a Millionaire" is called "400 to 1." It entails writing a letter to each of the people on the Forbes 400 list to solicit a donation. Rather than sending a form letter to each member of the Forbes 400, the intent is to research each person and craft a personalized plea.
Download ThisMake An Artist A Millionaire: 400 to 1: Anne Cox…

Make An Artist A Millionaire: 400 to 1: Anne Cox Chambers
Phase 4 of "Make an Artist a Millionaire" is called "400 to 1." It entails writing a letter to each of the people on the Forbes 400 list to solicit a donation. What at first seemed simply like a euphemism for "your project will never succeed" grew into, if not a more effective approach to getting the million, at least a challenge. More interesting than asking people over and over for a dollar, which in the end possibly just reinforced the idea of the artist as an undeserving beggar, someone who steps out of line when they expect a reward for their gifts.
Download This“The Corporation” Announcement

“The Corporation” Announcement
6 x 9 in.
This Clock Will Never…

This Clock Will Never…
18 x 24 x 5 in.
The Latin inscription translates as "This Clock Will Never Be Stolen Because the Employees Are Always Watching It."
Superstar CEO

Superstar CEO
This tee was made in women's style only.
Hard-Working Team Player

Hard-Working Team Player
Dedicated Self-Starter

Dedicated Self-Starter
Detail-Oriented

Detail-Oriented
Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs
Marketing Guru

Marketing Guru
Social Media Rockstar 1

Social Media Rockstar 1
Content Creator

Content Creator
Adds Value

Adds Value
“The Corporation” installation view

“The Corporation” installation view
Works shown (left to right): "Monument", "Getting to Yes" and "Take This Job".
“The Corporation” installation view

“The Corporation” installation view
Works shown: "Please Hold" and "Planter".
Moving on to New Opportunities

Moving on to New Opportunities
11 x 8 x 7 in.
For Bill Callahan.
Here to Help

Here to Help
12.5 x 10.5 x 4 in.
Meeting 2

Meeting 2
8 x 20 x 14 in.
Collection of Pablo Manga
Head Start

Head Start
18 month old / 18 x 18 x 3 in.
Handmade by Shari Robertson
Materials Mockup for an Analog Stress Self-Reduction Chamber (Screaming Booth)

Materials Mockup for an Analog Stress Self-Reduction Chamber (Screaming Booth)
14 x 14 x 14 in.
“The Corporation” book

“The Corporation” book
8 x 8 in.
Based on my experience working at a successful start-up from 2009-2015, this 64-page book includes photographs taken in offices and warehouses, corporate haiku written during long meetings, spam email promotions, digital collages, office humor, and more. The book and "The Corporation" exhibition highlight a number of current themes in American life: corporatism, neo-liberalism, greed, boredom, chaos, futility, plastic, cardboard, dysfunctional hierarchies, and the color beige. Limited, numbered edition of 100 includes free download of hold music made by the artist.
Order ThisFossil

Fossil
2 x 1 x 1 in.
for Nina Katchadourian
Assets

Assets
18 x 32 in.
Body Double

Body Double
16 x 20 in.
Getting to Yes

Getting to Yes
20 x 30 in.
edition of 3
Monument

Monument
20 x 30 in.
edition of 3
Early Imperial Services Business Card

Early Imperial Services Business Card
2.5 x 3.5 in.
Business card. ca. 1957 showing the original logo that bears the Latin saying "Audentes Fortuna Iuvat", i.e. "Fortune favors the bold." Designer uncredited.
Clearinghouse Publishers: “Official”

Clearinghouse Publishers: “Official”
6 x 9 in.
Throughout the making of “Official”, the image stuck in the editorial mind was of artist as office worker, for better or worse. As individual toiling in obscurity on small works of no consequence which are brought to the public with great effort and to small effect. Clocking in and out, only without the paycheck. I asked contributors to work backwards from the [tele-]visual presentation of ideas to the ideas themselves.
Clearinghouse Publishers: “Official” cover

Clearinghouse Publishers: “Official” cover
6 x 9 in.
The artist book "Official" presented the notion of artist as bureaucrat, as ad-man, as consultant, as worker and professional. This issue marked the first public emergence since the late '90s of my project "Imperial Services," a private consulting firm, members of which contributed to the issue.