futureacademy

Psst! Electronic Art - Will digital editions become the art world's new headache?

"Sudbrack vaulted to art stardom with his contribution to last spring's Whitney Biennial—a surreal full-room installation with a Brazilian-disco vibe that included images of drag queens, soft-core porn, and serial substance abuse. Traditionally, such installations are unique pieces. Those created by artists firmly inscribed in the artistic canon—such as Joseph Kosuth, Richard Long, or Mona Hatoum—might sell for $150,000 to $300,000. But Peres Projects broke the Whitney piece down into multiple units (somewhat like the suit, shirt, and shoes of an autumn ensemble in a Barneys window) and sold each individually. To reproduce the whole installation, a collector would have to buy one of each element, at a total cost of $150,000. The defining elements—the installation's floor, walls, and ceilings—were in an edition of three. But the five sculptures, priced at $5,000-$15,000, were in an edition of five while the $2,500 decals and $5,000 video were in an edition of 10. Thus, the total list price of products available from the Whitney show was $600,000, minimum. Such sums only matter, of course, if someone will pay them. But by the time Frieze opened barely seven months later, Peres Projects had sold every last item from the Whitney show."

Interesting article about the change in the sales model for art in the digital age: "in the broadband age, the CD with the piece's image is really just a prop, after all". How do you monitor secondary markets for such digital pieces (detroying copies etc). What impact does this have on the artist, when their interaction with the piece ends at the creation of the digital product which can then theoretically go on to be produced in any number of guises without necessarily having any intervention from the original artist?

posted by Chris @ 10:43 am