Decoy Works
2011–

The decoy works are made from high resolution scans of publications containing reproductions of Curl works, regardless of reproduction size or print quality. The intent is to produce works that capitalize on the transformations the works are subject to in their circulation as reproductions, as each reproduction is a transformation and expansion of the life of the work itself. The goal is to treat the work’s circulation through other mediated forms as part of its meaning and to make that meaning available and intrinsic to the understanding of the work by returning it to a gallery context and enlarging that reproduction to the scale of the original work. Thus, while the original work bears only traces of photographic production, evident in the rendering of light and color native to photography, the decoy works imbed the half-tone patterns and digital artifacts native to offset printing. Since the works are more often seen in reproduction than in their original, most viewers experience the works with these artifacts present. The works include, or internalize, this means of trafficking photographic images and the physical transformations this mode of traffic produces in the work. Furthermore, seams present in full spread reproductions, defects in plate alignment, surface shine, and the frequent misapplication of inks during the offset process produce further surface incidents that are inseparable from the traces of the production process of the original work. In essence, these two moments of production, the photographic processes of the original, and the scanning, etching of plates, and use of those plates to apply inks to paper are made one continuous procedure.

Titling Convention:

The date attributed to the work is the year of its first exhibition. A final description of the work, for example one that would appear on a wall didactic in an exhibition space, might read:

Jens Asthoff, “Sensitive Material: How Walead Beshty Pushes the Boundaries of the Image,” Camera Austria, no. 115 (Graz: Camera Austria International) pp. 44­–45
2011
Chromogenic print
51 x 109 inches

Here annotated:
Jens Asthoff [author of scanned text], “Sensitive Material: How Walead Beshty Pushes the Boundaries of the Image [title of scanned text],” Camera Austria, no. 115 (Graz: Camera Austria International) [publication and publisher information] pp. 44­–45 [page(s) of scanned image]
2011 [date of first exhibition]
Chromogenic print [media]
51 x 109 inches [framed dimensions]