Permutation 03.2: Re-Place

©Åbäke

The exhibition space P!, New York, will conduct an extended inquiry into the nature and means of copying. Remakes vs knockoffs, transcription vs plagiarism, mimesis vs mimicry — the status of the copied act shifts from positive to negative and back again, depending on context and culture. Multiples of a religious or political icon extend their reach and efficacy, whereas a duplicated file, painting, handbag, or cityscape violates legal and ethical strictures. Questions of capital and power lie at the core: who owns the original vs who is producing the copy.
Offering counterpoints from disparate cultural positions, P! explores the copy through a cycle of events and exhibitions.

Permutation 03.2: Re-Place, from March 8 to April 14, 2013, is the second exhibition of P!’s six-month cycle on copying focuses on replicas, remakes, and recurrences. Margaret Lee’s uncanny storefront display juxtaposes graphic backdrop painting with simulated fruit, while Oliver Laric premieres a new Mandarin version of his distributed video essay, Versions (2009–onward). London-based collective Åbäke captures plaster molds for a Danish/Chinese Pieta in “hacked intaglio”, and Amie Siegel’s Berlin Remake (2005) approaches East German filmic precedents as contemporary scores for reprise and re-performance. The presentation of these disparate works at P! establishes frameworks for considering authenticity and origination across a variety of cultural contexts.