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Conceptual Art Forgery Ring

Make confusing art even more confusing
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(+5, -2)
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The winner of the Turner Prize (best young British artist) this year was Martin Creed, who's best known work is "Lights Going On and Off", which is, well, an empty room where the lights go on and off every few minutes. As a fan of minimalist art, I've no room to bash this piece, and I actually find the idea a little appealing.

However, I propose a new set of dastardly international crooks that will sell forgeries of Creed's work. Not too original, except that our crooks will claim that the act of forgery makes the conceptual work even more complex, thus more valuable. (Deliberations with gallery owners will decide if selling the forgery with the original title or "Copy of Lights Going On and Off" yields a better return at auction.)

Subsequent targets include Creed's "A4" (a crumpled sheet of paper), Dan Flavin's fluorescent tube sculptures, and Jeff Koon's basketballs/vacuum cleaners.

An alternate strategy is to start a company to manufacture copies of conceptual art marketed under the same "similar to" scheme that is used by perfume knockoffs (e.g. "If you like Chanel No. 5, you'll love Sha-Nel No. 6!")

Sotheby's look out!

tspyz, May 02 2002

Baked. http://www.halfbake...t_20Forgery_20Ring2
Let's see if the value holds up as predicted. [beauxeault, May 03 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

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       Ah, Creed ripped that off from me. I put that piece together when I was 5. He's so passé.
phoenix, May 03 2002

       Wow, I'm more artistic than I thought. I've produced an interactive piece with an empty hallway that has lights turn on when you go in and turn off when you go out. It's even a conceptual piece, the hallway isn't really there. It's just suggested by the presence of a floor, ceiling and walls.   

       Thanks for the art enlightenment but I can't support any kind of international crooks. Certainly not dastardly ones. (They may be dastardly, but not brilliant if they lay claim to this forgery activity!)   

       The alternate strategy might have some merit. Just don't come to my door the way the imposter perfume people do and try to sell me crumpled paper .
half, May 03 2002


thumbwax, May 03 2002

       Masterful, 'Wax. I see what you're getting at!
jurist, May 03 2002

       The less complexly constructed works of conceptual art are commonly sold with certificates of authenticity, so you would only need to fake these, which should be well withing the capabilities of a forger.   

       Of course some works would be harder than others to fake. Yves Klein sold regions of immaterial space, and provided the customer with a receipt which was immediately burnt. Therefore, anyone could claim to have an original Yves Klein with no way of proving or disproving it.
pottedstu, May 03 2002

       My friend's mother who knows the Creed family was given a crumpled sheet of A4 paper by Martin Creed. It has since been uncrumpled and binned with the assertion that she 'could always make another one' should she need to.
stupop, May 03 2002

       Since paper seems to be a popular concept art material, do you think I could sell the contents of my recycling box here at work? The cleaners don't seem to understand that it's supposed to be taken away.
sappho, May 03 2002

       Anyone who crumples a piece of A4 could be charged with forgery.   

       // our crooks will claim that the act of forgery makes the conceptual work even more complex, thus more valuable. //   

       From my understanding of it, complexity would be undesirable for the minimalist, wouldn't it? Ergo, less valuable.   

       Art forgery is not a new idea. I don't see that the type of art being considered makes this a new, and therefore half-baked, idea. On that basis I would m-f-d this, if others agree.   

       I have very little interest/patience with this sort of art. It requires a very loose definition of the word, if you ask me. I prefer to see some form of talent exhibited.
waugsqueke, May 03 2002

       There are also artists who have created works that exist *only* as copies, as a way of thumbing the nose at the practice of valuing a signature or certificate of authenticity over the content of the image. I'm not positive, but I believe both Andy Warhol and Keith Haring were into this.
beauxeault, May 03 2002

       I find the duality of the double-post concept to be the biggest contributor towards the art world. Cuts very much across the grain of the 'original vs. the copy' world. Superb!
RayfordSteele, May 05 2002

       Wouldn’t it be funny if the crumpled piece of paper had the artist failing grade in art school on it?
emtae, May 05 2002


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