The Shelf Life Of Art Concepts

Art projects and ideas have a shelf life where the artist must act on the concept or risk obsolescence before the idea is fully realized.  I learned this lesson in 2007, when the political atmosphere of the country is conducive to my idea -- giving away free artwork in the form of "special" paper printed with an image of a certain politician.  I made the relief print and a prototype as shown in the image above but other more pressing matters somewhat shelved the project.


The idea is that I would have only one condition upon receiving the free art -- that is, the recipient email me back a picture of the artwork after he or she uses it, preferably before flushing the toilet and I was going to publish all received photos in a website.  The project would have provided people who were extremely frustrated with Vice President Dick Cheney some avenue for relieving their frustrations.  Well, Change (capital "C") happened in November 2008 and the idea lost its relevancy as the country looked to brighter days ahead.