Detachable storage rack for a metallic structure 1 (Exploit), 2013, US Patent 6318569 B1, 430 steel plate, custom shelving, 200x142x14cm

Exploits is a series of work utilizing existing intellectual properties which are licensed or purchased from their current owner. The intellectual properties are taken as a set of negotiated guidelines within which physical works may be produced, and as a set of norms to be deviated from. Each negotiation is unique: the property owner may set legal barriers to the contexts in which the IP can be presented, limit the amount of derivative works that may be produced to a set number, or to a period of time. Further a certain IP itself may be valid for use only within certain contexts—a Trademark specifically for apparel, for example. These stipulations manifest in each case in a unique contract between myself and the IP holder.

Intellectual property becomes within this series a symbolic object underscoring the relationship between the social structures that formalize what would otherwise be abstract (the virtual, the ‘immaterial’) and the manifestation of those structures through physical objects and imagery. The model and the depiction. In each case, the IP is one which has already been registered by another entity—Exploits is the process of locating objects which already exist as territories, and transposing said territories into another context through a transaction.

Detachable storage rack for a metallic structure is the title of US patent 6318569 B1. This patent has been licensed from its author and current owner, and was created as a framework for a shelving system utilizing rare earth magnets.