File:Elana Herzog Civilization and Its DisContents 2003.jpg

Installation by Elana Herzog, Civilization and Its DisContents (Persian and Persian-type carpets, mixed fabrics, metal staples and mixed media, dimensions variable, 2003/5. Installation views at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, New York. Left-side: close-up view). The images illustrate a key stage and body of work by Elana Herzog that began in 1999, in which she embedded found textiles in walls, movable panels and built surfaces using thousands of heavy-gauge metal staples. This body of work and installations featuring this work were publicly exhibited in and commissioned by prominent institutions and discussed in art journals and daily press publications.

Artist Elana Herzog. Copyright held by the artist.

Elana Herzog

Installation views

Yes

The installation images serve an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work by Elana Herzog that began in 1999 and has continued in various forms throughout her career: her reconstructions embedding found textiles in walls, movable panels and built surfaces using thousands of heavy-gauge metal staples (visible in left image), which often re-inscribe selected patterns in the materials ranging from chenille bedspreads to Persian carpets. This work uses a deconstructive process of shredding, pulling and cutting, leaving ghostly, afterimage-like forms that dissolve distinctions between figure and ground and both acknowledge and undermine late-modernist and domestic-craft traditions, while suggesting themes of impermanence, decay, erosion, memory, absence and presence. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to visualize this distinct and foundational body of work, which earned Herzog wide recognition from major institutions, art journals, and daily press publications. Herzog's work of this type and this work in particular is discussed in the article and by prominent critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Elana Herzog, and the installation was site-specific and temporary, so it no longer exists in this form and cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.