LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze

Installation view #museumshutdown

LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze

Hundreds of independent art and museums spaces were forced to close due to the Corona-Crisis. In this series we are celebrating the fantastic artistic events that are right now sitting behind closed doors. Take a look on how visual artist LaToya Ruby Frazier turns her camera toward Lordstown, Ohio, and the workers of its General Motors plant in The Last Cruze, a deeply personal investigation of labor, class, community, and family, installed at Wexner Center for the Arts.

Installation View of LaToya Ruby Frazier: The Last Cruze at Wexner Center for the Arts

30. April 2020

Installation View

After more than 50 years of automobile production and a commitment to manufacture the Chevrolet Cruze until 2021, the facility was officially unallocated by GM and stopped production in March 2019. Employees in Lordstown have been faced with the difficult decision to transfer to plants in other parts of the country. For many, this means dividing their family or leaving their support networks. As the plant went quiet and the workers’ lives were rerouted or put on hold, the UAW International Union began negotiating their contract with General Motors. During this period of profound uncertainty, Frazier was in Lordstown with the members of UAW Local 1112 and their families, collaborating with them to record their stories. Presented for the first time in Ohio, The Last Cruze features over 60 photographs and other audiovisual elements—as well as the last automobile from the GM Lordstown Complex itself—in an installation that visually echoes the plant’s floating assembly line.