The Making of Mike Kelley's The Wages of Sin's Exhibition Copy: Replication as a Means of Preservation

With the arrival of the digital age and technology, creation of art and its replication reached a whole new pinnacle. Increasingly, conservators find themselves dealing with editions, copies, and replicas as part of their job. Indeed, the replication of a work of art, be it paper or a 3D printed sculpture, is becoming one of many conservation measures that may serve as a preventive conservation technique, protecting the art from excess levels of light, travel, or handling, or as a tool to better understand the art. Replication of a digitally existing master for each new display may be the artist's intent, or enable simultaneous multiple displays of the same work as per the artist's directive. This article describes the making of an Exhibition Copy of the American artist Mike Kelley's The Wages of Sin, a pile of partly melted wax candles atop a readymade, commercially sourced table. Owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the highly complex three-dimensionality and materiality of this iconic work of art posed significant challenges to replicate. The following description illuminates the conceptual aspects considered, why and how the replica was made, and decision-making processes throughout its fabrication, exploring materiality and technical issues. The role of the Whitney's Replication Committee in this project is discussed, including participation of its curators, archivists, and other museum professionals, along with an explanation of the Committee's choice of the term 'Exhibition Copy' to describe the replica. The account of the collaboration and coordination of the project with the Mike Kelley Foundation and external fabricators is central to this comprehensive project. Ramifications for future use of the Exhibition Copy within the museum management, documentation, loans, and wall labels, and its legal and publication consequences conclude this paper.

Automated summary

The advancement in the digital age and technology has brought art creation and replication to new heights. The process of making an Exhibition Copy involves considerations of conceptual and technical aspects, challenging the complex three-dimensionality and materiality of the original work, with the art museum managing and considering the future use of the replica through a Replication Committee.