letter
from paris : : matthew
rose
everything
must go: the art of michael mandiberg
A receipt
for shipping two Shop Mandiberg purchases, was part of Net.Ephemera, a show in
New York at the Moving Image Gallery. (Price: $ 1.00)
Michael
Mandiberg is selling everything, and you can buy it, and he urges: Become Michael
Mandiberg. Choose from among his socks, underware and condoms (unused!) to his
wallet (full!), his mother's letters (to him!) or the keys to his apartment, even
the orange juice in his refrigerator. The 24-year old computer programmer and
artist, has combined Duchamp and eBay in an art project that suits the 21st Century
perfectly. Everything is art, everything is for sale, even the artist's time with
the profit motive (or the plans for profit), equally for sale.
A
graduate of Brown University (Class of 2000), Mandiberg is a both a fan and participant
in the global capitalism game because, he says, "objects form our unique visual
identity." So he launched an e-commerce site that urges visitors to "use my stuff!"
and become him. You can buy his credit cards, check books, his junior high gym
bag (with his last name emblazoned on it), his socks, shirts, his breakfast cereal.
But there's more. The artist has even put his letters and journals up for sale.
His slick sales copy makes the unique selling position: "Pretend that your mother
sent you these cards, that your friends wrote you these postcards, and that you
yourself wrote these words in the journal."
Michael
says his site Shop Mandiberg aims to undo the process of shopping and redo the
process of identity: "By buying my objects, you undo the work I did in building
my object based identity. By buying my objects you can participate in the disintegration
of my identity."
He
took lessons from one of the masters of this post-modern sensibility, scanning
Sherrie Levine's rephotographed images of Walker Evans, making that appropriation
an appropriation rendering Levine's stalemate into a specimen suspended in formaldehyde.
Like
a handful of artists working behind the counter globally, Mandiberg seeks to exploit
the pent up demand for his personal effects. An internet e-commerce software,
Pay Pal, permits him to transact credit card purchases on his site. Other artists,
such as Frenchman, Mathieu Laurette, have played the consumer bidding game as
art as well, using a barter system and bidding in a television production piece
in Spain. There Laurette began with a brand new car and exchanged that for a product
with similar, though declining value.
But
Mandiberg does have an artist's concept of value--he's not only selling the sales
receipts from his Shop Mandiberg site for $1, but he's also selling his time.
How much? "My rate for all Freelance Conceptual Art is $20 an hour."
what
led you to sell everything in your personal life?
I
had been doing work about commodity and identity. I had photographed all my possessions
numerous times, but got frustrated realizing I was just creating more possessions
(the photographs). I really wanted to do something with the web. I had been working
for an enormous e-commerce site, and one day it just struck me. Build a site,
and sell your own stuff. I was so incredibly happy when I came up with it. It
just made so much sense.
how
many items have you sold thus far? how much have you earned?
I've
sold more than 81 items. The idea of how much I have "earned" is somewhat difficult,
as I am not exactly turning a profit. It is kind of like selling body parts...
you run out eventually. I have brought in about $3000, though the bulk of that
comes from selling my computer, and selling my studio strobes.
it
seems you are setting prices very low (a computer for $950 seems low!)
Actually,
no. I feel like my prices are about what they are worth on the US open market.
A G4 400 CPU on eBay is worth about $900 - $1000. Setting the prices has actually
been one of the most challenging aspects of the project. I've changed the prices
on almost all of the items. Something sells quickly, and I realize the prices
are too low, so I increase the prices on similar objects, and vice versa when
something doesn't sell at all. It is like being a shopkeeper, if you will.
did
you go to art school?
I
went to Brown University in Rhode Island and graduated in 2000. I also did photo
studies at Rhode Island School of Design.
[He
had a BA in Visual Arts and English and cites two classes at Brown that had a
great deal of importance for him: Introduction to Cinematic Coding and Narrativity,
and Feminism and Post-structuralism, taught by Professor Nancy Armstrong].
which
artist or ideas have influenced you in your art work?
Some
important influences to my art are Duchamp, Warhol, Derrida, Chris Burden, Vito
Acconci, Felix Gonzalez Torres, RTMark.com, and my Uncle Gary who is an auctioneer
and taught me that "everything has a price." Also living (and surviving) in New
York City, the failure of documentary photography, the expansion of international
capitalism (of which I am a knowing, if self-referential, participant), and entropy.
how
many people have visited your site?
100,000
or so, probably more by now.
what's
the oddest thing you've sold?
Probably
my dildo and butt plug (separate buyers.) Though you could make an argument for
anything from the computer to the Michael Jackson trading card... All the sold
items are up at http://mandiberg.com/cgi-bin/sold.cgi
where
do you show your work?
I
have recently become affiliated with the Michele Thursz gallery in NYC (formerly
Moving Image Gallery), which is moving to Chelsea, but is available online at
http://www.michelethursz.com. Though,
for selling in a gallery, it is slightly problematic that everything is already
up for sale.
why
are you moving to LA?
I'm
headed to Grad School, CalArts.
what
are you planning next?
Well,
in between Shop Mandiberg and now, were two sites, http://www.AfterSherrieLevine.com
and http://www.AfterWalkerEvans.com
These are sites where I have scanned the same images that Sherrie Levine photographed
20 years ago, and placed the hi-resolution images up for download, along with
certificates of authenticity signable by the user/owner. The goal being to use
the certificate not to certify the value of the object, but to insure that the
object will have no financial value.
I
really want to work within non-art channels of distribution-making things that
can read as art and also read as plain objects. Things which are only distributed
through general consumer channels such as the super market, the hardware store,
etc... I'm not quite sure where this is going to take me. I've got a few paths
in my head, but they are really abstract at this point.
what
is your day job?
Making
other peoples' web pages... I'm a programmer.
Matthew
Rose mattrose@noos.fr
affiliates
