The School of Art and Design  opened a new conceptual art exhibition on Jan. 23 titled “Simulacrum: How to Make Money (While Destroying Photographs).”

Ariel C. Wilson, a former School of Art and Design faculty member, made the art. The exhibit is open to the public from Jan. 23 until Feb. 17 free of charge in the Birke Art Gallery located in the Visual Arts Center at 927 3rd Ave. 

“‘Simulacrum: How to Make Money (While Destroying Photographs)’ is a mixed media collection that began as a response to a color-correcting and printing student exercise,” Courtney Chapman, gallery director for the School of Art and Design, said. “This exhibition showcases the playful replication and extensive destruction of those prints and digital files.”

In “Simulacrum” Wilson asks, “Which processes of replication destroy as they reproduce?” and  interprets the acts of deletion and erasure required by law. Every print or digital file is destroyed through the process. 

Wilson created consecutive Xerox copies of one print until the bill became unrecognizable, and digitally cut the images and prints. Ultimately, she shredded the images. The resulting works in the series are equal parts legal proof, physical photographic inquiry, interrogation of the state and a nod to the power of the simulacrum.

Wilson will be at the exhibit on Thursday, Jan. 26, hosting an artist’s talk from 5 to 6 p.m. which will be followed by a reception. Both events are open to all.

Gallery • 5 Photos