Jean-Luc Godard asks this question in his little-known 1970’s film No.2. Although he speaks of the factory, he is really talking about any workplace in which we are physically and mentally constrained. For him the landscape represents freedom of the mind and the factory the life of grind, making the choice between them seemingly pretty easy. But we know it isn’t. We cannot always choose what we want.   

In the recent film, Collateral, directionless taxi driver Max keeps a postcard of a desert island clipped to his visor to feed his day-dreams. Pressed into the service of the hitman Vincent on tour of Los Angeles on a mission to kill trial witnesses Max is forced to make a real, hard choice: to live or not to live. It’s much the same dilemma as posed by Godard, but, being Hollywood, there are more dead bodies.

Alienation or Freedom? Day dreams or death? What’s this all got to do with working in an office? Isn’t the world of the office one of smart suits, long lunches and easy deadlines? To which the reply might be ‘Now who is living in a fantasy?’ For most people the life of the office is one of demanding emails, worrying paper trails and lunches by the keyboard. One moment you are drowning in a sea of boredom the next made frantic by missed deadlines and missing paperwork. Perhaps at such moments of frustration office workers – like everyone else – need imagine their own desert island.

Does the choice between work and freedom have to be so stark? Perhaps there is another way. And perhaps Art, in some small way, can provide it.

My proposition is that Art, when it works, is a kind of magic that can transform our lives. The experience of Art is not about daydreams but something which takes us to another place. In the context of the office Art gives greater pleasure than new stationery and is more permanent than marker ink. It can be cheaper than a computer and doesn't wear out or mysteriously go wrong.

The purpose of this website is to provide photographic Art to enlightened employers for the enjoyment of the toiling office masses. There are no Van Gogh prints here – not that we have anything against Van Gogh – and there is no ‘Art’ designed to match the curtains for cheap hotel chains. It presents the work of one award-winning artist, Gina Glover. 

At this point, and before you go off to check your emails, we ask you to spent a little bit of time looking at her pictures. And then think about the empty walls of your office.

Our suggestion is that these pictures do not fill wall space but provides an extra window for the imagination and light to drab places. Your factory will be a landscape. Our proposition to you is that the minor investment each piece represents will be repaid every penny in bottom-line delight.

There you have it. Art is not a non-essential and either-or but about making your company’s work place an enjoyable one. Think about your empty walls and then ask Godard’s question. There, this is the easiest decision you will make today. 

Geof Rayner