Katie Chin’s ‘Short Pay, Short Shovels’ Explores teh Subtle Power of Sabotage in Art and Labor
Table of Contents
A haunting installation by Katie Chin at the Bronx Museum of the Arts confronts the history of labor resistance and its resonance in the age of surveillance, prompting a powerful question: how do we reclaim agency in oppressive systems? Chin’s work, featured in “The Seventh AIM Biennial: Forms of Connection,” utilizes deceptively simple imagery – deliberately altered tools – to unpack a complex history of defiance.
From railroad Spikes to Quiet Quitting: A History of Sabotage
The installation centers around sabotage,a term with a surprisingly nuanced history. Bent and twisted shovels, resting on gravel strewn with railroad spikes, immediately evoke a sense of disruption. A closer look reveals the key: the shovel scoops are intentionally shortened. As Chin explains, the concept originated from a story recounted by Brooklyn Institute curator, Ashley James, about 19th-century railroad workers who would subtly shorten their shovel scoops to slow down production and protest unfair “short pay.”
Chin’s own artistic practice is deeply rooted in collaboration and shared knowledge. She was recently selected as a fellow for the Bronx Museum’s AIM Fellowship in 2024 and 2025. The AIM program, now in its 45th year, provides crucial professional advancement and community building opportunities for New York City artists. Chin herself underscored the importance of shared knowledge, stating, “I don’t believe in individual artistic genius. There’s a collective, shared knowledge pool that you can pull information from, and it comes through in my work.”
This emphasis on collectivity is central to both the biennial and the Fellowship, highlighting the essential role of mutual support in sustaining artistic practices.
The Evolution of Sabotage: from Wooden Shoes to Digital Resistance
Chin’s research into the origins of the word “sabotage” revealed its roots in early 20th-century France, where workers threw their wooden shoes – sabots – into factory machinery. Initially a direct act of labor protest, the term has since broadened to encompass a wide range of disruptive actions, including wartime resistance. During World War II, the American Office of Strategic Services even distributed manuals instructing potential saboteurs on best practices for disrupting Nazi production.
However, Chin is most interested in the subtle gestures of resistance that are arduous to trace. “I’m interested in (sabotage) most as these subtle gestures that individual agents can (undertake) rather than really big stunning spectacle,” she explained. “Usually, sabotage is a form of resistance that’s hard to track to the individual. It’s subtle.” This pursuit of agency is notably relevant in today’s world, where pervasive surveillance makes even minor acts of defiance possibly visible.
The issue of surveillance is powerfully underscored by another work in the Biennial, Bryan Fernandez’ Beso a La Cámara (2025). Chin points to the increasingly ubiquitous presence of cameras – on streets, in homes, and on personal devices – coupled with the power of artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of data. Businesses are even monitoring employee keystrokes and work rates.
Despite these challenges, Chin remains optimistic. “As an action is difficult doesn’t mean it isn’t worth pursuing,” she asserts. She believes that embracing the concept of sabotage can definitely help individuals reclaim agency and foster a “collective imagination” capable of impacting social systems.
“We live in a time where it’s hard to feel like you can do anything with the oppressive systems that we live in,” Chin said. “With all of the social media you see every day, everyone gets locked up and apathetic. I like this idea of sabotage, of finding agency again. How do we use it as a tactic to move into collective imagination and have it impact social systems.”
Ultimately, Chin’s work offers a compelling call to action: to recognize the power of “small gestures that change large structures.”
“Forms of Connection” remains on view, free to visit, through June 29, 2026.
