Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal. ~ Igor Stravinsky (also attributed to Pablo Picasso)

Lifting surveys theft within artistic practices. The artists in the exhibition have—or claim to have—transgressed a legal line, committing theft in the name of art. Lifting explores the specific intentions and implications of each artist’s work, as well as questions regarding authenticity, moral defensibility, and conceptual integrity.
 
The exhibition includes work from the 1970s to the present day by: Mark Jeffrey, Micah Lexier, Ann Messner, Scott Myles, Joel Ross, Jon Routson, and Ulay. Lifting seeks to trace a lineage from the outer edge of appropriation strategies as they transgress legal and societal boundaries. As a relatively commonplace gesture within art, the radicalism of appropriation—and the attendant moral, ethical, and political issues—may risk being overlooked. The artists in Lifting have intentionally strayed into a territory that is more overtly deviant, whereby their work incorporates materials that point to the act or evidence of theft.
 
This exhibition was curated by Atopia Projects (Gavin Morrison & Fraser Stables). A related anthology publication will be released in July 2008 which will contain interviews with the exhibiting artists as well as others and essays by Kelly Baum, Kenneth Goldsmith, Rosemary Coombe, Jeff Ferrell, Frazer Ward and others; interviews with the artists; and other documentation. A reduced content version of this publication is currently available at www.atopiaprojects.org