Walead Beshty thinks of his work in terms of preexisting constraints, whether that be context, convention, process, or material, and uses these as starting points to produce his work. This methodology applies to the Blind Collage works he began in 2012. While working in various countries and cities, Beshty began collecting newspapers, using them to produce collages on-site during the installation of exhibitions. The selection of newspapers was based on those readily at hand (i.e. what the hotel, gallery, or working environment had available), ranging from tabloid and local papers to the varied formats of globally ubiquitous news providers (for example, in this exhibition, you will notice Beshty’s use of The New York Times from Tokyo, Beirut, and New York, in addition to various regional newspapers). The newspaper is treated as a readymade, one whose aesthetic composition is premised on a form of trust and reliability, an expression of the assumed interests, class, and lifestyle of their readership, as is expressed through the paper’s graphic design, news content, and advertising.
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I am always invested in understanding how my work is transformed by the various means through which it is circulated.
Walead Beshty
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Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, China Daily: Beijing, China, Monday, October 1, 2012)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 67.5 x 54.5 cm / 26 5/8 x 21 1/2 inches
BESHT47869
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, South China Morning Post: Tai Po, Hong Kong, Tuesday, October 2, 2012)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 68 x 57.5 cm / 26 7/8 x 22 5/8 inches
BESHT47870
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Al-Mustaqbal: Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 3, 2014)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 70 x 57.5 cm / 27 1/2 x 22 5/8 inches
BESHT47872
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Asharq Al-Awsat: London, United Kingdom, Monday, October 26, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 69.5 x 57.5 cm / 27 1/2 x 22 1/2 inches
BESHT47882
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Al Hayat: Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, November 1, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 69.5 x 56 cm / 27 1/2 x 22 inches
BESHT47884
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Le Monde: Paris, France, Thursday, March 3, 2016)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 62.5 x 47 cm / 24 1/2 x 18 3/8 inches
BESHT47886
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Nikkan Sports: Tokyo, Japan, Wednesday, March 22, 2017)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 81 x 54.5 cm / 31 7/8 x 21 3/8 inches
BESHT47887
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, The New York Times International Edition, Distributed with The Japan Times: Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, March 23, 2017)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 80.5 x 54.5 cm / 31 3/4 x 21 3/8 inches
BESHT47888
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Chunichi Shimbun: Nagoya, Japan, Monday, March 27, 2017)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 80.5 x 54.5 cm / 31 3/4 x 21 3/8 inches
BEST47889
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Daily News: Jersey City, New Jersey, Wednesday, September 3, 2014)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 51 x 31.5 cm / 20 1/8 x 12 3/8 inches
BESHT47873
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, La Prensa Jalisco: Guadalajara, Mexico, Monday, February 16, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 57.5 x 38 cm / 22 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches
BESHT47878
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, La Prensa Jalisco: Guadalajara, Mexico, Sunday, March 1, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 57.5 x 38 cm / 22 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches
BESHT47879
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Metro: Guadalajara, Mexico, Wednesday, August 19, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 57.5 x 32 cm / 22 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches
BESHT47880
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, Metro: Guadalajara, Mexico, Friday, November 6, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 57.5 x 31.5 cm / 22 5/8 x 12 3/8 inches
BESHT47885
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, New York Post: New York City, New York, Wednesday, September 3, 2014)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 56 x 30.5 cm / 22 x 12 inches
BESHT47874
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, New York Post: New York City, New York, Thursday, September 4, 2014)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 56 x 30.5 cm / 22 x 12 inches
BESHT47875
Blind Collage (Seven 180º Rotations, ¡Pásala!: Mexico City, Mexico, Saturday, February 7, 2015)
2021
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Sheet 57.5 x 32 cm / 22 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches
BESHT47877
To produce the Blind Collage works, he follows a preset arrangement of circular forms, which are cut through the backs of the outspread front page of the newspapers and rotated 180 degrees. Since they are face down, the appearance of the final work is left to chance, resulting in an intermixing of hard journalism, cultural news, and advertising. Beshty relinquishes control of his final product both by using a predetermined sequence of cuts and leaving the selection of newspapers to chance. The handmade cuts inevitably produce small errors and misalignments in the final composition. The result creates a tension between the industrially produced format of the newspaper and its material handling (both the irregularities of the newsprint paper itself and the process used to cut it are subject the work to variability due to the circumstance of their enactment). Beshty embraces the misalignments that invariably occur during this process by filling in these gaps and tears with gold leaf, essentially creating a new form out of the disjunction between the hand made and the industrially produced. This technique is an homage to the Japanese concept of Kintsugi or Kintsukuroi, meaning golden (“kin”) and repair (“tsugi”), in which objects (most often ceramics) are mended with gold; in Beshty’s Blind Collage works, one of the most ephemeral and disposable materials (paper) is bound to one of the most valuable and stable guarantors of value (gold). As a readymade, the newspaper represents (in the artist’s words) an “aesthetics of trust,” through its design, its tone, and even through its advertisements, which each telegraph the publications’ notion of its public. The appearance of gold, is, of course, another signifier of trust.
Beshty’s currency collages take this idea one step further, taking sanctioned certificates of value as a ready-made material, and further making the value of these artworks immediately transparent (the collages are priced at one hundred times the particular banknote’s face value); the tensions between raw material value and representations of value are brought into stark relief. Here, on display, is an aesthetic of trust which fuels an economy, faith in the national banknote (which were once backed by gold or other precious specie), and further allows reflection on how various countries represent those ideas of trust. Each banknote, like each newspaper, presents itself as a testament of faith in the organization it represents, whether that faith is the information it provides (as in a newspaper) or as a holder of transactive value (as applies to the banknote), constituting a form of social contract with its would-be user.
With this thematic of trust as a backdrop, the additional works speak to the failure of systems to fulfill that trust. His sign box works are composed of anonymous solicitations to the poor, desperate, and suffering, in bold and blunt terms. As Beshty describes it, “I began collecting these signs during the credit crisis. They started to appear all over Los Angeles, like a colorful rash on a diseased body. I suppose I think of the works as portable monuments to the cold brutality of capitalism, how it so often cheerfully chooses profits over people, abstraction over life.” The standardized format of these signs, originating from the economic expediency of their producers, allows them to fit together as modular units. The resulting boxes, remade at a 1:1 scale and produced with a painstaking care the originals lack, preserve these fleeting testaments to societal failure.
The screens used to produce the sign box works are repurposed in the screen box works, whose industrial aesthetics provides another wink at the cold anonymity of Minimalism and its appropriation of signifiers of industrial labor (much as the original boxes point to Pop Art’s appropriation of advertising). They also serve as a testament to the conclusion or foreclosure of this series of sign box works; using the screens themselves as artworks guarantees no more of the sign box works can be produced. The boxes are translucent and, like their counterpart sign box works, can be oriented in any manner or stacked upon themselves. This pair of works intermix the histories of Pop and Minimalism, linking both to a play of signifiers and industrial production.
I BUY HOUSES FAST EASY CASH ANY CONDITIONBANKRUPTCY DIVORCE FORCLOSURE MAJOR REPAIRS ABANDONED INHERITANCE (323) 834-2891; NEED TO SELL YOUR HOUSE? WE BUY HOUSES FAST. CASH. NOW. 714-397-8620;
IMMIGRATION Services 323.582-9871 2407 Randolph St., HP; $ $$ COMPRO CASAS 310-803-5360;
DIVORCE CUSTODY 818-277-4006 Hablamos Español;
WE BUY HOUSES 4 CA$H (323) 314-0403
2020
Cast acrylic, acrylic enamel, vinyl screen ink
45.5 x 45.5 x 61 cm / 18 x 18 x 24 inches
BESHT48156
NUEVO PROGRAMA DEL GOBIERNO SALVE SU CASA GRATIS REDUCCION DEL PRINCIPAL (323) 804-9910;
Flip Houses With Me TRAINING AVAILABLE 951-383-6500;
JESUS THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE JOHN 14:6;
I BUY HOUSES 909-378-5224; FATHERS WE CAN HELP...
CHILD SUPPORT VISITATION CUSTODY 866-72- DADDY;
DIVORCE & CUSTODY 909-485-9282
2020
Cast acrylic, acrylic enamel, vinyl screen ink
45.5 x 30.5 x 61 cm / 18 x 12 x 24 inches
BESHT48000
I BUY HOUSES FAST EASY CASH ANY CONDITIONBANKRUPTCY DIVORCE FORCLOSURE MAJOR REPAIRS ABANDONED INHERITANCE (323) 834-2891; NEED TO SELL YOUR HOUSE? WE BUY HOUSES FAST. CASH. NOW. 714-397-8620;
IMMIGRATION Services 323.582-9871 2407 Randolph St., HP; $ $$ COMPRO CASAS 310-803-5360;
DIVORCE CUSTODY 818-277-4006 Hablamos Español;
WE BUY HOUSES 4 CA$H (323) 314-0403
2020
Cast acrylic, acrylic enamel, vinyl screen ink
45.5 x 45.5 x 61 cm / 18 x 18 x 24 inches
BESHT48156
NUEVO PROGRAMA DEL GOBIERNO SALVE SU CASA GRATIS REDUCCION DEL PRINCIPAL (323) 804-9910;
Flip Houses With Me TRAINING AVAILABLE 951-383-6500;
JESUS THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE JOHN 14:6;
I BUY HOUSES 909-378-5224; FATHERS WE CAN HELP...
CHILD SUPPORT VISITATION CUSTODY 866-72- DADDY;
DIVORCE & CUSTODY 909-485-9282
2020
Cast acrylic, acrylic enamel, vinyl screen ink
45.5 x 30.5 x 61 cm / 18 x 12 x 24 inches
BESHT48000
[I BUY HOUSES FAST EASY CASH ANY CONDITION BANKRUPTCY DIVORCE FORCLOSURE MAJOR REPAIRS ABANDONED INHERITANCE (323) 834-2891;
NEED TO SELL YOUR HOUSE? WE BUY HOUSES FAST. CASH. NOW. 714-397-8620;
IMMIGRATION Services 323.582-9871 2407 Randolph St., HP; $ $$ COMPRO CASAS 310-803-5360;
DIVORCE CUSTODY 818-277-4006 Hablamos Español; WE BUY HOUSES 4 CA$H (323) 314-0403]
2021
Silkscreen, aluminum, vinyl screen ink, tape
86.5 x 66 x 78.5 cm / 34 x 26 x 31 inches
BESHT48001
[BANKRUPTCY $349.00 DIVORCE $225.00 (562) 920-4280;
JESUS THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE JOHN 14:6;
CAR ACCIDENT ACCIDENTE DE AUTOMOVIL 877-317-4646 FREE LEGAL CONSULTATION;
Liquidacion De SEGUNDA HIPOTECA EVITA LA BANCARROTA (323) 206 -3939;
DIVORCE CUSTODY 818-277-4006;
I BUY HOUSES & UNITS FAST CASH ANY PRICE -ANY AREA - ANY CONDITION 310-490-6633]
2020
Silkscreen, aluminum, vinyl screen ink, tape
86.5 x 66 x 78.5 cm / 34 x 26 x 31 inches
BESHT48002
[K5 FIX YOUR CREDIT (800) 791-6365;
PARAMOS LA VENTA de Su CASA en 24 HORAS! No es bancarota o modificación 562-443 -7300;
PINK SLIPLOANS CASH IN 1 HOUR 800.910.6901 SE HABLA ESPAŃOL WWW. LOAN4TITLE.COM;
TAX ADVANCE $2,500 MONEY WITHIN 24HRS 323-481-0787;
I BUY HOUSES FAST CA$H ANY AREA, PRICE, CONDITION 818-574-3999;
ELIMINE 2DA HIPOTECA (LINEA DE CREDITO) PORGRAMA DEL GOBIERNO *GRATIS* (323) 804 -9910]
2020
Silkscreen, aluminum, vinyl screen ink, tape
86.5 x 66 x 78.5 cm / 34 x 26 x 31 inches
BESHT48003
[I BUY HOUSES FAST EASY CASH ANY CONDITION BANKRUPTCY DIVORCE FORCLOSURE MAJOR REPAIRS ABANDONED INHERITANCE (323) 834-2891;
NEED TO SELL YOUR HOUSE? WE BUY HOUSES FAST. CASH. NOW. 714-397-8620;
IMMIGRATION Services 323.582-9871 2407 Randolph St., HP; $ $$ COMPRO CASAS 310-803-5360;
DIVORCE CUSTODY 818-277-4006 Hablamos Español; WE BUY HOUSES 4 CA$H (323) 314-0403]
2021
Silkscreen, aluminum, vinyl screen ink, tape
86.5 x 66 x 78.5 cm / 34 x 26 x 31 inches
BESHT48001
[BANKRUPTCY $349.00 DIVORCE $225.00 (562) 920-4280;
JESUS THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE JOHN 14:6;
CAR ACCIDENT ACCIDENTE DE AUTOMOVIL 877-317-4646 FREE LEGAL CONSULTATION;
Liquidacion De SEGUNDA HIPOTECA EVITA LA BANCARROTA (323) 206 -3939;
DIVORCE CUSTODY 818-277-4006;
I BUY HOUSES & UNITS FAST CASH ANY PRICE -ANY AREA - ANY CONDITION 310-490-6633]
2020
Silkscreen, aluminum, vinyl screen ink, tape
86.5 x 66 x 78.5 cm / 34 x 26 x 31 inches
BESHT48002
[K5 FIX YOUR CREDIT (800) 791-6365;
PARAMOS LA VENTA de Su CASA en 24 HORAS! No es bancarota o modificación 562-443 -7300;
PINK SLIPLOANS CASH IN 1 HOUR 800.910.6901 SE HABLA ESPAŃOL WWW. LOAN4TITLE.COM;
TAX ADVANCE $2,500 MONEY WITHIN 24HRS 323-481-0787;
I BUY HOUSES FAST CA$H ANY AREA, PRICE, CONDITION 818-574-3999;
ELIMINE 2DA HIPOTECA (LINEA DE CREDITO) PORGRAMA DEL GOBIERNO *GRATIS* (323) 804 -9910]
2020
Silkscreen, aluminum, vinyl screen ink, tape
86.5 x 66 x 78.5 cm / 34 x 26 x 31 inches
BESHT48003
The last element in this grouping is the series of photographs (Temporary) Homes for America… These are photographs of RVs (recreational vehicles) and mobile homes that are decaying on the streets of Los Angeles, photographed in a blunt straightforward manner, betraying no evidence of life except in the objects’ deterioration and their occupants’ improvised repairs. As Beshty put it, “the residents are absent from the images, in much the same way they are absent from consideration by the city, its policymakers, and industries that choose not to take responsibility for their predicament. The corporate fascination with ‘flexible labor’ leaves these people stuck.” Beshty continues:
These works came out of the charged idea of homeownership in the American mythology. The first “recreational vehicles” (RVs) gained popularity in the U.S. in the mid-fifties. They were essentially industrially produced homes perched on the chassis of American-made trucks, and they were marketed as a democratization of American exploration, the idea that any family could, on short trips or family vacations, impersonate the homesteaders of American lore, and do so with all the conveniences of home. As this pursuit fell out of fashion, increasingly relegated to retirees, RVs, particularly the faded secondhand ones that have begun to grow in clusters in the suffering neighborhoods of post-industrial U.S. cities, indicate not a sense of personal exploration, but the impermanence and insecurity the American working poor must grapple with. These decaying corrugated metal containers perched atop aged semi-functional powertrains accumulate in the back allies of working-class neighborhoods in otherwise prosperous cities like unattended piles of autumn leaves; skeletal traces of previous life, and the canceled promise of a secure living wage, blue-collar jobs, and the social mobility the city once guaranteed. They, like the working poor they house, seem under constant threat of simply being blown away by a sudden change in air currents, whether by a shift in the municipal enforcement of vagrancy laws, which is a constant threat that sometimes makes these improvised neighborhoods disappear overnight, or the disintegration of the homes themselves into piles of detritus. Many are integrated with the mounds of debris that line the streets, abutting makeshift enclosures comprised of discarded shipping pallets, tarps, plywood, sheet metal, and various other industrial effluvia local businesses leave on curbs in the dark of the night to avoid the costs of sanctioned disposal. It is watching the American home dissolve slowly into its constituent parts, reduced to remnants and raw materials, their facades still emblazoned with the cavalier ideals these vehicles once represented, ‘Commander’, ‘Pinnacle’, ‘Voyager’ and so on. They are exemplary of the post-war economic boom of the U.S. and the ‘American dream’ it wrapped itself in, the promise of homeownership democratized and industrialized, and later made mobile, brought to a rusty, squeaking halt in the once bustling arteries of industrial might (these particular homes are located on the now derelict Union Pacific Avenue, named for the once powerful rail line whose main Los Angeles base of operations was located there). It bears mentioning that these works quite consciously take their form from art’s forays into the urban milieu, from Atget’s images of old Paris to Walker Evans’ “Homes for Americans,” Ed Ruscha’s various book treatments of the American architectural vernacular (such as his “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” and “Real Estate Opportunities”), Dan Graham’s “Homes for America,” and Lewis Baltz’s “New Industrial Parks of Irvine California” to name a few.
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48006
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48007
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48008
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48009
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48010
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48011
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48012
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48013
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48014
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48015
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48016
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48017
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Chromogenic print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48018
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Chromogenic print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48019
(Temporary) Homes for America: 3300 block to 4400 block, Union Pacific Avenue, between South Grande Vista Avenue and South Marianna Avenue, Los Angeles/Commerce, California, December 2020
2021
Black and white fiber print
Ed. 1/1 + 1 AP
Sheet 20.5 x 30.5 cm / 8 x 12 inches
BESHT48020
Beshty’s work combines essential strategies of contemporary art practice while questioning art as a practice. As he states, “I think of my practice as an ecosystem, a set of interdependent relations that have an internal logic, which is dependent on other systems that have their own logics. The purpose of an art practice isn't just to make things, but to create meaningful relations between things.” Beshty’s work goes beyond theoretical ideas by addressing the art system as such: its production processes, its shipping and handling procedures, as well as its modes of presentation and the sale of artworks. Art is considered part of the economic, as well as the social system, and the work itself makes this condition visible. Beshty also pays tribute to the so-called “neo-avant-garde” of the 1960s. If his work often appears like Minimal or Conceptual art, the differences are clearly stated when he has technical staff handle the precious surfaces with their bare hands, leaving traces of the handling on the pieces as part of the process the work goes through in the art system. Similarly, his procedural works like the FedEx series are marked by their transit, evolving through time and exhibition, and, thus, index their changing status between regular goods and art objects depending on their context.
In addition to showcasing the expansive nature of Beshty’s practice, the bodies of work on view are united by common themes of travel and circulation as they persist in his work, reconsidered through the lens of the recent pandemic and economic suffering it produced. Conceptually, the exhibition in and of itself plays a role in the circulation of the work, according to Beshty, “The exhibition hall (a commercial gallery, museum, online viewing room, etc.) is a distribution hub for the work of art, expanding the circulation of artworks through the actions and activities that take place in these contexts, and in so doing, they are also producers of an artwork’s meaning.”
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve One-Dollar Note: Series 2017, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Illinois, Printed in Fort Worth, Texas, Plate Position I5, Front Plate No. 48, Back Plate No. 49, Serial No. G27970846D, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve one-dollar bill, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48254
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve Two-Dollar Note: Series 2013, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, California, Printed in Fort Worth, Texas, Plate Position F4, Front Plate No. 44, Back Plate No. 56, Serial No. L84090167A, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve two-dollar note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48253
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve Five-Dollar Note: Series 2013, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, California, Printed in Washington, District of Columbia, Plate Position F2, Front Plate No. 272, Back Plate No. 312, Serial No. ML41028000M, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve five-dollar bill, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48255
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve Ten-Dollar Note: Series 2017, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Printed in Washington, District of Columbia, Plate Position G1, Front Plate No. 20, Back Plate No. 40, Serial No. PI01278173A, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve ten-dollar bill, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48256
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve Twenty-Dollar Note: Series 2013, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia, Printed in Washington, District of Columbia, Plate Position E2, Front Plate No. 210, Back Plate No. 464, Serial No. ME28198602F, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve twenty-dollar bill, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48257
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve Fifty-Dollar Note: Series 2009, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, California, Printed in Fort Worth, Texas, Plate Position C1, Front Plate No. 32, Back Plate No. 22, Serial No. JL70650369A, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve fifty-dollar bill, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48258
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, United States Federal Reserve Bank One-Hundred- Dollar Note: Series 2009, Issued by Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Texas, Printed in Fort Worth, Texas, Plate Position E4, Front Plate No. 214, Back Plate No. 147, Serial No. LK38044325B, #2)
2021
United States Federal Reserve one-hundred-dollar bill, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 6.5 x 15.5 cm / 2 5/8 x 6 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48259
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, Swiss National Bank Ten-Franc Note: Series 2017, Issued by Banque Nationale Suisse, Printed in Zürich, Switzerland by Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd., Designed by Manuela Pfrunder GMBH, Serial No. 16R7373542, #2)
2021
Swiss National Bank ten-franc note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 7 x 12.5 cm / 2 3/4 x 4 7/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48260
Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, Swiss National Bank Twenty- Franc Note: Series 2017, Issued by Banque Nationale Suisse, Printed in Zürich, Switzerland by Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd., Designed by Manuela Pfrunder GMBH, Serial No. 15G6430522, #2)
2021
Swiss National Bank twenty-franc note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 7 x 13 cm / 2 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 inches
BESHT48261
Blind Collage (Three 180º Rotations, Swiss National Bank Fifty-Franc Note: Series 2016, Issued by Banque Nationale Suisse, Printed in Zürich, Switzerland by Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd., Designed by Manuela Pfrunder GMBH, Serial No. 15E5204488, #1)
2021
Swiss National Bank fifty-franc note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 7 x 13.5 cm / 2 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 x 4 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 x 1 5/8 inches
BESHT48262
Blind Collage (Three 180º Rotations, Swiss National Bank One-Hundred-Franc Note: Series 2019, Issued by Banque Nationale Suisse, Printed in Zürich, Switzerland by Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd., Designed by Manuela Pfrunder GMBH, Serial No. 18Q1638093, #1)
2021
Swiss National Bank hundred-franc note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 7 x 14.5 cm / 2 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 x 4 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 x 1 5/8 inches
BESHT48263
Blind Collage (Three 180º Rotations, Swiss National Bank Two-Hundred-Franc Note: Series 2018, Issued by Banque Nationale Suisse, Printed in Zürich, Switzerland by Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd., Designed by Manuela Pfrunder GMBH, Serial No. 16J1588686, #1)
2021
Swiss National Bank two-hundred-franc note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 7 x 15 cm / 2 3/4 x 6 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 x 4 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 x 1 5/8 inches
BESHT48264
Blind Collage (Three 180º Rotations, Swiss National Bank One-Thousand-Franc Note: Series 2019, Issued by Banque Nationale Suisse, Printed in Zürich, Switzerland by Orell Füssli Security Printing Ltd., Designed by Manuela Pfrunder GMBH, Serial No. 17O3869280, #1)
2021
Swiss National Bank one-thousand-franc note, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Object 7 x 16 cm / 2 3/4 x 6 1/4 inches
Frame 24 x 32.5 x 4 cm / 9 1/2 x 12 7/8 x 1 5/8 inches
BESHT48265
