Student artwork vandalised and pieces stolen
A controversial student artwork was vandalised and one of the digital prints that constituted the work was stolen last week while on display at the University of Cape Town's Centre for African Studies (CAS) Gallery. The work entitled Shared Residue by Michaelis School of Fine Art third year student, Mikhael Subotzky was hung as a part of the exhibition, 'Cache' at the CAS Gallery. Shared Residue consisted of 14 digital prints which were a collection of found objects that Subotzky had harvested from the shared folders of a computer network.
The work received a controversial reception with questions being raised as to the ownership and authorship of the found objects as well as to Subotzky's right to exhibit them. Commenting on the piece, the student artist said: "Shared Residue is a collection of found objects� rescued from the virtual alleyways of a typical turn of the century computer network."
"Just as the residue of previous epochs collected in anonymity in the shared public spaces of dusty streets and empty alleys, the residue of our times is gathering virtual dust in the liminal alleyways of shared folders," Subotzky explains. "These sites of transience accumulate incomplete, forgotten, or discarded fragments of visual referents."
A minor disagreement between the artist and the CAS Gallery has subsequently complicated issues surrounding the rights to display the images. In taking up the gallery's generous offer for compensation for the loss of the work, Subotzky suggested that funds be directed towards a small reward for the return of the work. "I felt that somehow managing solicit the return of the original print was the most important aim in re-constituting the work<" he explains."
While initially supportive of the idea, the Gallery's position changed when it emerged that the stolen print shown in the poster depicted a full frontal male nude. It is also understood that the model is a student at UCT. The Gallery directors, realising that they bore a responsibility to all UCT students, decided to only support the reward and the poster on condition that this image was not displayed too prominently in such a way as might be objectionable to the model depicted. The matter is as yet unresolved.
