Song for Luke



The fabrication of this work does not involve the “artist’s touch”.   It is like a print, a woodcut, an etching except the 1000th iteration is as good as the first. It can be produced by a workshop without the artist.  It can be an edition.  In art, such a sculpture is called a “multiple.”  The original idea of an serial artwork was promoted, if not invented, by the German master, Albrecht Durer.  His idea was to produce etchings cheap enough that could be afforded by a much larger audience.  Given the ability to mass produce works of art, the contemporary art cabal, has perverted this idea by artificially limiting production runs to create an artificial scarcity and thus maximize profit.  They regard art objects primarily as financial instruments.
Riffing on these concepts, I applied negative feedback, a cybernetic technique, to use the “market” to regulate the edition size.  Upon each sale, the price is raised 10%. My idea was the eventually the price will choke off the demand. 
However Allan Stone refused to exhibit Song for Luke although he bought one for himself.  I asked why? 
He said. " Someone considering to buy one your larger works like Bird Perch for $9000 looks at Song for Luke at 600 and thinks,  " Bird Perch isn't fifteen times better than Song for Luke." He  thinks somethings fishy.  You have to raise the price.  It interferes with other sales."
 I said, " I can't raise the price.  It's part of the concept" 
"OK but I can't show it."
The piece up for auction was Allan's.  I don't show it anymore either.

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