What are we working for?

The redemptive and historical dynamism of this question – the 'what…for' – bringing with it a responsibility of ends, is a burden possessed by the power of an idea; accidental prescience, directed obscurity – mania and conviction. Work, thus far, is at best a catalytic activity driven by ideas of overcoming ourselves and our current circumstances – working for a 'greater good' – but can also be a toil of which we feel no benefit, a distraction and mechanism of fatigue and political apathy, or worse. The fourth issue of Grafters' Quarterly emerges out of a year-long interval since our previous offering; an interval gauged by an anxiety of momentum’s hostile aspiration, a still-careering inhuman trajectory of progress. Familiar to many, this interval of imagination, decay, and alienation, born of an atmosphere that won't quit and life's eternal passing away, paradoxically institutes lives of unrelenting busyness and feelings of being at the forefront of History. In 'Rhythm Is Gonna Get You', a constellation of rhythm, distraction, and redemption in this issue attempts to offer a feeling of living with work whilst looking away from the horizon to which the finger points.

Contributors:

Roland Albrecht | Mary Walling Blackburn | Hanne Darboven | Gloria Estefan | Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven | Petra Löffler | Dillan Marsh | Sandra Mujinga | N. H. Pritchard | Théodule-Armand Ribot | Katja Rothe | Joshua Foer & Michel Siffre | Hamish Symington