Go Forth and Multiply

(half the fun of blogging is making up these cheeky headlines, non?)

Next week I’m moderating a panel on DIY publishing and artist’s multiples. Our panelists will discuss the positive and negative aspects of this mode of practice. It’s going to be good. If you live in Toronto, go here for the who/what/when/where/why.

This all conveniently folds into the discussion that occurred in the comments for my recent post, “Just Add Water“, where we debated and mostly debunked the idea of the “hand of the artist”.

Multiples add an interesting trajectory to that discussion, because they straddle several boundaries. First, we might ask, what is a multiple? It seems generally accepted that multiples are art objects produced in quantities that you can’t count on your fingers, sometimes by hand, and other times with mechanical assistance. What separates them from common objects that come off the assembly line is that hand of the artist again, that touched them and made them special, either through modification or creation from scratch.

A multiple I really like, Jon Sasaki’s member’s tags (a common shoe tag, inscribed with the text, “I’VE PAID MY DUES”) is a good example of the use of common objects, slightly turned on its head by an artist, and then sold as a multiple. In this case, our hand of the artist is quite invisible, as I’m sure (but can’t verify – Jon are you out there?) that he made a phone call and had these ordered up. The mind of the artist, however, is prominent in this very witty commentary on belonging and its related costs, embodied in an object that is a common symbol. The related costs of owning this multiple, I might add, are much less than a shoe tag at your local gym will cost you.

Those are the kind of dues we can all afford to pay.

4 replies on “Go Forth and Multiply”

I’ve been thinking a lot about this sort of thing lately, most of it along the lines of "gee, people are selling funny plastic animals for 10 bucks a pop, how do I buy in to this?" I’m intrigued by the market for collectable figures and t-shirts. There’s this whole world of collectable toys that’s in the grey zone between artist multiples and mass market toys.
Ferinstance, check this shop out:

http://www.magic-pony.com

Kubricks are cool, but are they really worth 10 bucks? I can get a Kinder Egg for a buck. Kinder Eggs are cool. (Note to American readers- We have Kinder Eggs and you don’t! Nyah Nyah!) What’s the difference? And how are they different from other "made to be collected" stuff like Royal Dalton figurines, and Barbies, and Robert Bateman "prints". I dunno. What I do know is that an old friend made bazzillions of dollars marketing toy versions of her pet chicken that I used to play with when she lived in Kensington Market, and I want in on this game, somehow.

I wish for more handwritten mail. I do love my e-mail and the internet, but it seems that there is something about geting a postcard or letter that really makes me belive the message is sincere. It’s like homemade cookies vs. oreos. If someone gave you a bag of oreos you’d think it was kinna lame, but homemade cookies (even if they might not be so good) are really special. That’s why I like independant DIY projects, cause someone out there really cares, and wants to send out a message that is NOT advertising.

True. I used to do a lot of mailart back in the day, and was often astonished at the lovingly crafted stuff that wound up in my mailbox. It was like having a birthday every day. A lot of people were able to make multiples that had that "homemade cookie" feel. One of may favorites was Ryosuke Cohen
http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~cohen/
who assembles anything sent to him into these wonderful silk-screen collages, and then sends a copy to every one who sent something.

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