Who’s There
Who’s There:
Oct 28 – Nov 28, 2022
Bill Pechet
Walter Benjamin’s essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) in which he asked many questions about whether a piece of art, in the process of reproduction through mass media, retains its original aura; or if it in a kind of decay.
As a person who sometimes explores the effects of multiples, and/or has things Bill has drawn rebuilt by others, Bill was curious as to how the non-mechanical reproduction of the painting would affect the bunny’s aura and oddly emotional conveyance.
Set against the context of online ordering Bill consulted Alibaba and found many companies in China that can reproduce art, choosing one in a ‘painting village’ in Xiamen. Instantly Bill thought that perhaps he could use this as an opportunity to reach out and communicate with their artists in some form and spent many daydreams imagining what they might think of this silly, and admittedly, badly drawn, and messy little artwork. Would they think it’s funny, or dumb, or weird or what? Was it just drudgery and an insult to their histories as artists, having graduated from the competitive academies?
