Free (98), 2007


Free (99), 2007


Free (100), 2007


Free (101), 2007

That's it for Free, with that Music in the Tuileries / Tattoos and Shadows chair and the frowning ghost formed by those two on-their-side tires and that munched tailpipe a nice note to go out on. Thanks to everyone who wrote with directions to free goods all over the Lower Mainland. I am going to spend August making the work's next incarnation: two largeish (24" x 30") "working" collages (lightjet prints on watercolor board, with additions of wax, gesso, acrylic, charcoal, coffee stains, etc.) "Unique, edition of two." Next up, a "cleaned-up" lightjet print made in Photoshop, edition 10 5, 2 AP, also approx. 24" x 30". The collages are already spoken for. The prints are $350 CDN unframed, first come, first served.

Q: Isn't it kind of presumptuous to flog your own work?

A: No, it's an important part of the work's transformation of "valueless" content into economic surplus. If the prints are given away, the project doesn't work. Free content plus unpaid labor equals negative surplus.

Q: Is this some sort of Marxist scam?

A: I'm reading Capital right now. But no, I'm not a Marxist. My personal politics, which I hope are separate from, or complicated by, my aesthetics, can be loosely characterized as small-L libertarian. (For an instance of my politics and aesthetics in action, see this debate with Simpleposie's Jennifer McMackon, on the role of government subsidies for the arts).

Q: Will you consider trades for prints?

A: That's interesting. An aesthetic IPO! So, even though I've fixed the work's offering price, trades would mean that I might receive additional surplus, or less, based on other artists' subjective assessments of my work.

Q: Are you ever going to quit making stuff?

A: Probably not.
- posted by cjb @ 11:06 AM