The Copyists, The Forged Coupon or L'Argent

This photo-text fold out publication work included a text by Jo Melvin, some new photographs by myself and an edited transcript from an in-conversation between the artist & Tom McCarthy that occurred as part of a symposium at the ICA in March 2015.

The title of the publication relates to research around the literary figure of the copyist (as found in Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat and Melville's Bartelby The Scrivener). It also refers to Tolstoy's short story about the web of unintended consequences which were the outcome of the forging of a bank note. The idea of the copyist is explored in the text and images to highlight its relationship to photography, re-enactment, theft and other covert transactions. The featured short essay by Jo Melvin explores questions of authorship, originality and dissemination with regard to present day artistic and curatorial production.

This publication relates to the themes and preoccupations which were the focus of the CCW Symposium The Copyists at The ICA, which I devised and led. The one day event at the ICA included presentations and dialogues with leading curators & writers including David Campany (University of Westminster), critic Michael Bracewell & novelist Tom McCarthy and Jo Melvin.

The symposium and publication both focussed on works and discourses that centre and seek to critically appraise recent artistic acts of republication and the proliferation of artists’ re-enactments and re-purposing of existing cultural production.