Performance Appraisal is an ongoing series revising Ramírez's body of work through the lens of a gallery office. The framework of a 'performance appraisal' implies Ramírez' ouvre is being measured, reviewed and valorised.
In Performance Appraisal 2, Ramírez made a new video (2024) based on an older video (2023) and placed them in plinths, with dripping bitumen. Then commissioned a Cultural and Environmental Safety Audit from cultural producer and story teller Eliki Reade, who inevitably condemned the work.
Reade's text was intensely critical of Ramírez' videos, chipping away at their value.
"The implication here is the subversive tongue-in-cheek nature of the work, which employs a harmful form of ‘knowledge privilege’. The context richness of the work is lost on those who aren’t able to personally discern the subversiveness of the work are excluded, and therefore reinforces capitalism’s power over individuals and systems. In this instance, I would suggest including supplementary texts from scholars who might provide alternative thought to that of capitalism’s champions, such as The Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engekls & Karl Marx, as a token of consciousness raising for the general public."
-Eliki Reade
