I can't work like this, 2007. Wall installation, nails, two hammers, A.P. 1/2, edition of 3, 13 feet 1 1/2 inches x 78 3/4 inches (400 x 200 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,Purchased with funds contributed by the Young Collectors Council  2011.20. © Natascha Sadr Haghighian. Photo courtesy Johann Koening Gallery, Berlin

Natascha Sadr Haghighian interrogates modes of perception and the politics of representation in an expansive conceptual practice that includes performance, writing, video, installation, and online projects. Sadr Haghighian is particularly interested in the consumption of visual art—a field the artist identifies as a reflection of the wider socioeconomic context in which it operates. I can’t work like this was conceived in response to a gallery’s invitation to feature her work as the sole exhibit in an art-fair booth; the piece was intended to mount a tacit assault on a strolling audience of potential buyers. The work withdraws the traditional art object, at least metaphorically, and leaves only the most common tools of art installation, including discarded hammers, a universal symbol for labor. A sharp one-liner, I can’t work like this functions as an expression of the artist’s frustration at the pressures and parameters of her own creative output.