Photographic Reproduction of a Cottonswab

1998

Concept

Art becomes art through systems of signing, numbering, and pricing. This work blurs art and non-art by inviting the audience to see those systems as arbitrary, perhaps even absurd.

Method

110 poor-quality images of a Q-Tip sit in my gallery. A signed and numbered stack of 10 to sell for $100 each next to it was a stack of 100 unsigned that are available for free. The viewer can take a free one, or they can buy one a signed one that has no material difference other than the signature of the artist.