MET  MUSEUM LABELS / PARIS

 

Sketching in front of masterworks is the right of an artist, and protection for historical ideas continuing into our current conversations. In the fall of 2007, I went to the Met to see the Muriel Steinberg Newman Collection. At this exhibit, sketching was not allowed. I sought out something that I could steal from the show as a form of opposition, so I copied the text from each of the information labels. Collecting only written information, allowed me not to break any of the perverse regulations. These edited labels were then re-created onto stickers mimicking the real ones. The MET has a notorious reputation of importing artifacts and art with questionable legal provenance. Following a spirit of resistance, I exported my new labels of stolen intellectual property to Paris. The stickers humorously placed as the labels for the graffiti turn the entire city of Paris into the gallery and give the street works the look of historical importance because the stickers are also unauthorized graffiti the balance of the project into the realm of free exchange of idea, something the museum could not provide.