Common Love,
Aesthetics of Becoming
April 27–June 11, 2011
Gabriel Martinez
An outdoor sign is stolen, sanded, repainted, and returned to the store before it reopens the following day, 2005
C-print
7 x 10 in.
Courtesy the artist
In An outdoor sign is stolen, sanded, repainted, and returned to the store before it reopens the following day, Martinez steals a store owner's sign, refurbishes it, and returns it. His physical labor is not remunerated and, if the beautified sign leads to more business, the storeowner benefits doubly from the crime committed "against" (in favor of) him or her (i.e., a renovated sign and increased profit). Furthermore, albeit on a humble and personal level, this work proposes an example by which the law can be transgressed for good—how we might operate in a society based on common love rather than one based on the law of the state.