Acts of Devaluation

When a man signs an artwork, the value goes up. When a woman signs an artwork, the value goes down. As a response to this finding by Dr. Helen Gorrill, Operator created Acts of Devaluation in September 2022, a durational performance during Art NFT Linz at Francisco Carolinum Museum–curated by Anika Meier.

Acts of Devaluation is a performance in which the artists signed their names on a scroll for 90 minutes asking: how much devaluation could be inflicted onto one art object?

The performance resulted in a 20 meter scroll of signatures.

The female signature has historically devalued the price of an artwork. With Acts of Devaluation, artist duo Operator denounces this disparity and presents their signatures as a conceptual self-portrait inscribed in two critical forms: the physical, 20-meter scroll they signed in a durational performance and a digital record capturing every signature on the scroll. The latter is minted as an NFT. The artists reject the signatures' negative value and rather than omit it to secure their work’s value, sign it as many times as possible in a hyperbolic act materialized in paper and on the blockchain.

For Inquiries, please contact La Collection.