Kline frequently works with the very forms and technologies he critically examines, whether through tools like 3D scanning and printing or by repurposing the aesthetics of advertisements and consumer goods. In Skittles (2014), he adopts the sleek, sterile packaging of wellness commodities to present an installation of a commercial refrigerator containing 15 different blended smoothies. With concoctions like “condo” containing coconut water, turmeric, an HDMI cable, and glass or “big data” containing Google Glass, omega-3 fish oil, and Purrell, Kline reflects on the fraught relationship between the consumption of goods and the construction of identity. In other works, Kline utilizes emergent technological tools that further the alienation and replacement of human labor. The uncannily lifelike sculptures of his Unemployment (2016) series, such as Productivity Gains (Brandon/Accountant) (2016), are 3D-printed portraits of individuals curled in the fetal position and wrapped in industrial recycling bags. “Each one is a portrait of a real unemployed person who had worked in fields predicted to be eliminated by AI and automation,” says the artist. “There’s a small business owner, there’s an administrator, there’s a secretary, there’s an accountant, there’s a lawyer.” Through 3D-scanning and printing, the artist pushes our professionally obsessed culture to its logical extreme, creating a body of work in which human beings are atomized, objectified, and disposable.

Kline’s work often takes place in a speculative future, visualizing the political and social consequences of contemporary crises like extreme income inequality and global warming. In his installation titled Civil War (2016-2017), the artist imagines American life in the 2030s, where class division has led to warfare and ruin: heaps of monochrome, concrete-like casts of consumer objects associated with middle-class American life, like sofas, lawnmowers, and microwaves, are strewn across a gray carpeted floor, reminiscent of rubble. In Personal Responsibility (2023-2024), the artist envisions life and labor in the aftermath of a climate disaster through an installation of eight orange tents, each depicting a tableau of survival. Inside each tent, a video monitor displays a scripted interview in which fictional future climate refugees alongside furnishings and supplies that reflect their new daily lives. “I think scientists do a great job at laying out the facts, but not at communicating the urgency and potential personal impact of catastrophic climate change,” says Kline. “Why does this matter in our own lives?” Kline turns seemingly abstract crises into material realities, confronting audiences with the consequences of the political and economic systems of the twenty-first century.