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Donelle Woolford
ODE TO A STREET VENDOR
or,
To My Cool Copy Cats
by Donelle Woolford
This text was first published in the exhibition catalogue
for BMW: the IX Baltic Triennial, Contemporary
Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2005.
Ideas are the cornerstone of commerce, which revolves around their ownership and trade. Born, cultivated, stolen, and re-appropriated. The fluidity of culture and innovation causes sources to become concealed, meanings misconstrued.
This is an Ode to our street vendors, our neighborhood bootleggers, our high art copycats who continue to challenge the commerce and ownership of ideas and as always bring it back to the people.
Original vs. fake.
If you bootleg a stolen idea is that thievery or justice?
LetÁs think back on the "Columbus syndrome."
Does taking something really make it yours?
Influence vs. thievery.
All we want is some props in the credit line.
Are you buying it?
What do you get when you buy a bootleg Beastie Boys CD from your
local street entrepreneurs? An original copy of an original fake.
What do you get when a black artist remakes the White Album? Gray. WeÁre in a gray area; weÁre immersed in gray matter. Synapses. Brain cramps.
ItÁs time to take it to the streets!
White Hot
Black Market
Gray Matter
For Sale
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