FedEx Works
2007–

Shipping and Receiving:

Despite operating largely out of public view, the circulation of artworks is dependent on an expansive international system that is as central to their display as any other conventionally acknowledged material support (such as frames, plinths, walls, or architecture). The division between the work of art and its means of circulation has always been arbitrary—artworks have always been embedded in a transactional distributive network, and have always been informed, i.e. been given form, by this network. This reliance has only grown increasingly significant as art circulation has become more global and rapid, and artworks have become accepted as both an asset class and financial tool. The FedEx works imbed these circulation systems within the artwork, making the support (i.e. the transit and interparty transaction) part of the active production and reception of the work. In short, the transport is a visible part of the work, a necessary element of the work’s “appearance” (as in the technical sense of the term “aesthetic” meaning the means by which a thing is knowable to the senses) and is indistinguishable from the work itself. There is, in fact, no work without transaction and transmission, whether concrete or abstract. Furthermore, the airway bills, customs forms, and pro-forma affixed to the works indicate the provenance of the work and the system of obligations that support the travel of the work, as each form indicates an agreement between parties centered around the object. Thus, the work (inclusive of its shipping labels) is a form of contract between parties, and this contract, like the transportation system it is a part of, is a necessary and unavoidable component of the work of art.

Black Boxes:

FedEx is a global apparatus that processes inputs and outputs in a regularized yet unobservable manner. It produces a user experience that obscures the complex machinations and fleet of labor required to achieve what appears to be a seamless movement of an object from one place to another, removing the evidence of the myriad forces at work from the end user’s experience. This produces a fundamental disconnect between end users and the extensive apparatus required to shepherd a package from one place to another. This model of obfuscation is present in most forms of contemporary service-oriented retail businesses, whose increasing scale, and emphasis on seamless user experience, masks the real world impact of their offerings. Analogs can be found in various forms, from Amazon (where massive networks of server farms, manual laborers and “fulfillment centers” are concealed within a user friendly interface) to Apple (whose international network of factories, low paid workforces, and traffic in conflict materials such as tantalum are wrapped in tidy ergonomic forms). the operations of these corporations are aestheticized to actively obscure the real world impacts of their industrial processes. One can think of the art world as an analogous industry, where the network of laborers, cultural managers, and global infrastructure required to shepherd objects from venue to venue is actively obscured in the final reception of art objects within exhibition spaces.

Federal Express and the Corporate Modular:

Aside from the copyright on the design of the box, and the registered trademark of Federal Express (FedEx), the FedEx box represents a third form of intellectual property, i.e. the volume of space the box delineates. This volume is the sole and exclusive property of FedEx for purposes of transport. This exclusive use is indexed by the SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code) issued by the GS1, a non-profit, member-run organization whose mission is to standardize business-to-business supply chain integration, and is best known for developing the UPC (Universal Product Code). The GS1 has over one million member corporations, serving 25 industries (from retail to healthcare) across 150 countries. As they note on their website, “GS1 barcodes are scanned more than 5 billion times every day.” The SSCC is a unique identifier that is fully compatible with and inclusive of the ISO/IEC 15459-1, a proprietary standard developed by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and the IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission), another member-run organization with extensive global reach, spanning 164 member countries; their standards are subscription based, extracting fees for the adoption and implementation of their guidelines. The GS1, ISO, and IEC, are private, quasi-governmental organizations that directly manage the vast majority of goods and services available to the global populace. Their collective reach exceeds any government or corporate entity, instead providing guidelines for inter- corporate, and even inter-governmental relations, which reach directly into the lives of a far reaching global population, spanning health- care, energy use, consumer goods, environmental protection, building materials, data capture, business ethics, law enforcement, global transportation and logistics.

Exhibition:

The FedEx works are modular, meaning that they can be displayed in any configuration or number. The configuration of the works during exhibition (how they are stacked, arranged, or accumulated) is left to the discretion of the managers of the specific context of display. The artist may be included in this process but does need to be. Each instance of display should be considered an “example” of the work. There is no fixed manner of display outside of the simple conditions outlined above; no installation of the work is definitive or should be treated as such.

Proper Handling:

The works can only be shipped via FedEx. Additional tape may be used to attach airway bills to the works. All shipping labels, attached customs forms, or pro-formas should not be removed from the works. Additional shipping labels must be attached on top of the prior shipping tags. It is the nature of these works that they will change according to their exhibition history. This is a key aspect of the work and should not be subverted through conservation or additional packaging. Tracking numbers, dates, and cities from additional shipments to exhibition venues must be added to the title of the works. To transport the work in any other manner beside FedEx is to subvert and destroy the work. The owner of the work can decide not to exhibit the work in other venues for personal reasons but should not choose another means of transport. The piece does not exist as an artwork until it has been shipped, nor is it intact without the complimentary airway bills and customs documentation. Because the work changes in its transport between venues, no single presentation of the work should be treated as definitive, either in configuration, or in appearance.

Authenticity:

The shipping labels are the guarantor of both the provenance of the work, and the certificate of the work’s authenticity. The shipping and receiving labels constitute a contract between parties, creating a chain of possession, and the full exhibition history of the work. As such, the loss of these documents constitutes the destruction of the work itself.

FedEx Glass Works
2007–

Material Conditions and Production:

The FedEx works are made of laminated glass, either two-way mirror or clear, cut to the size of Federal Express standard shipping boxes; the lamination of the glass gives it increased structural integrity and prevents it from shattering. The work is comprised of the glass box, the cardboard FedEx-issued shipping container, and the shipping documents accumulated through the course of the work’s history. The works are initially shipped with no cracks in the glass, each crack in the glass panes comprising the box are the result of the shipping process. The FedEx-issued cardboard boxes are reinforced along the intersection of their sides by a simple steel skeleton, which allows the cardboard box to serve as a support for the glass box. The FedEx airway bill, customs forms, tracking labels, and barcodes are all part of the work and should not be removed. Every time the work is shown it must be shipped in the original box. The shipping box may be reinforced with additional tape or patched according to the discretion of the owner of the work, and these additional materials should be considered part of the work regardless of when or by whom they were added.

The observable characteristics of laminated glass, whether two-way mirrored or clear, are highly dependent on light, reflecting and refracting ambient conditions. The panes of glass that comprise the work act simultaneously as mirrors and windows, through which transient lighting effects, the surrounding space, and the bodies that move around it are visible. The surface of the work physically changes as a result of the forces the works are exposed to in the normal course of their handling during shipping (evidenced by the cracks and deformations in their surfaces), and this physical change also alters the secondary effects of the work (such as how they reflect the space around them). As the glass cracks from the shipping process, the view they offer of their surroundings is increasingly fragmented and irregular. Thus, the works can never be seen in isolation—for they cannot be viewed in such a way that their context is obscured—or as distinct from the mode of transport which supports and, in effect, produces the work.

Proper Handling:

The works should only be shipped via Federal Express (FedEx). Each glass box must be shipped in the FedEx cardboard box that was used to originally ship the glass box, and in the same orientation. Additional tape of any kind may be used to reseal or reinforce the FedEx cardboard boxes. No shipping labels, attached customs forms, or pro forma should be removed from the boxes. Additional shipping labels must be attached on top of the prior shipping tags. When the works are opened upon receipt, the cardboard boxes must be opened along the flaps of the FedEx shipping box, the box should not be cut apart. Works should be photographed after every shipment, and images should be sent to the studio or representing gallery. There is a top and bottom to the boxes, and the work should always rest in the proper orientation for structural reasons.

Exhibition:

No component of the work is intended to be shown in isolation. The FedEx-issued carboard box acts as both a shipping container and part of the work to be displayed. The shipping containers can be used as supports for the display of the glass boxes they are used to ship, or vice versa, but they do not have to be used in this manner.

Titling Convention:

The date attributed to the work is the year of its first shipment. A final description of the work, for example one that would appear on a wall didactic in an exhibition space, might read:

FedEx® Large Kraft Box ©2008 FEDEX 330510 REV 6/08 GP, International Priority, Los Angeles–London trk#86858 7728072, October 2–5, 2009
2009–
Laminated Mirropane, FedEx shipping box, accrued FedEx shipping and tracking labels, silicone, metal
and tape
24 x 24 x 24 inches

Here annotated:
FedEx® Large Kraft Box ©2008 FEDEX 330510 REV 6/08 GP [official name of FedEx box and SSCC#], International Priority [method of shipping], Los Angeles–London [cities shipped between] trk#868587728072 [FedEx tracking number], October 2–5, 2009 [dates of shipment]
2009– [date of first shipment]
Laminated Mirropane, FedEx shipping box, accrued FedEx shipping and tracking labels, silicone, metal, and tape [media]
24 x 24 x 24 inches [packed dimensions]

Method of shipments, departure and destination cities, tracking numbers, and dates of travel should be added to the title with each shipment. The date of the work, (indicated above by “2009–” reflects year in which the box was first shipped.

FedEx Copper Works
2011–

The works are made of mirror-polished raw 16mil copper cut and formed to the size of Federal Express standard shipping boxes. The works are initially shipped “clean”, and all marks on the surface are the result of the shipping process. The FedEx airway bill, customs documentation, tracking labels, and barcodes are all part of the work and should not be removed. Every time the work is shown it must be shipped via FedEx; thus, each time the work is displayed in a different location, the appearance of the work changes, first due to the shift in surrounding context as it is reflected on the works surface, and secondly through the handling that took place between venues. Furthermore, the work also slowly indexes circumstances not only through the handling while in transit, but also its registration of shifts in humidity and local pH, all of which are affected by temperature and lighting conditions. These local atmospheric conditions will affect the color and tone of the surface of the work, and the hue of the copper as it oxidizes. This is an intended effect; another way in which the work reacts to an array of active as well as passive conditions.

Material Reactivity:

Copper is a soft metal that oxidizes easily when it is exposed to humidity, moisture, or the oils in bare skin. It is also possible to polish copper to a mirror-like finish, making the work unable to be seen in isolation: one will always see its environment reflected in its surface, just as everything it comes into contact with is etched into it. These works both reflect their contexts (shown on their surfaces) and are formed by their context (the labor required to move the works from one place to another leaving traces on their surfaces). In a sense, copper is a material that allows for the inclusion of the distribution and transport of the work to factor into the aesthetic conditions of the object, subsuming this process of travel into the appearance of the object by transcribing its contact with bodies on itself.

Titling Convention:

The date attributed to the work is the year of its first shipment. A final description of the work, for example one that would appear on a wall didactic in an exhibition space, might read:

Copper (FedEx Golf Club Tube 2016 FEDEX 158667 REV 5/16 SSCC), International Priority, Los Angeles–Hong Kong trk#774718917105, March 15–19, 2019, International Priority, Hong Kong–Los Angeles trk#775232784927, May 17–21, 2019
2019–
Polished copper, accrued FedEx
shipping and tracking labels
50 x 9 x 9 inches

Here annotated:
Copper (FedEx Golf Club Tube 2016 FEDEX 158667 REV 5/16 SSCC) [official name of referenced FedEx box and SSCC#], International Priority [method of shipping], Los Angeles–Hong Kong [cities shipped between in first shipment] trk#774718917105 [tracking number for first shipment], March 15–19, 2019 [dates of travel for first shipment], International Priority [method of shipping for second shipment], Hong Kong–Los Angeles [cities shipped between in second shipment] trk#775232784927 [tracking number for second shipment], May 17–21, 2019 [dates of travel for second shipment]
2019– [date of first shipment]
Polished copper, accrued FedEx shipping and tracking labels [media]
50 x 9 x 9 inches [dimensions]

Method of shipments, departure and destination cities, tracking numbers, and dates of travel should be added to the title with each shipment. The date of the work, (indicated above by “2019–” reflects the year in which the box was first shipped.