The people who work in the gallery also play a large role in the "manufacturing" of the space. As employees, they provide service much like electricity, telephone, water, and heat. Visitors to the gallery need not know the role of each employee to be able to benefit from the latter's actions. At any given time, there may be as many as seven people employed by the gallery. Multitudes of functions are performed, as with any business, and several of the employees may not even be paid for their services. One is tempted to address the question of whether or not the artists affiliated with the gallery may also be considered employees, or on the other hand, if the entire gallery is not under the employ of the artists. Dividing expenses involved and comparing these with compensation is difficult, as the gallery has several artists associated with it, but most of the artists do not have several galleries. It is important for the stature of the gallery and of the artists that these distinctions remain vague because commitment to creativity and invention might be called into question, and it is the sacredness of these things which steel all the participants in the face of penury. Given that the roles of the people who work at the gallery are flexible, there is generally no need to address them as employees. In fact, the feeling around Lombard - Freid is more like that of a family.
A time clock was designed for the employees of the gallery to use for the duration of the exhibition. A card in the possession of each individual is used in the device to photograph the person along with the exact time and date. The photograph remains visible in the machine. The employees are asked to punch in when they arrive for work and punch out just before they leave. Visitors to the gallery will be able to see how many people work in the gallery and how much each works relative to each other. As with all the devices in this show, the function of one of the elements of the gallery is demonstrated in a perhaps distorted way simply to call attention to the fact that these elements exist and are complexly interconnected; ironically the devices tend to fall short of explaining how these elements function.
