PRE-CRIME TRIPTYCH
The works ID Sniper (2002) and Face Jagger (2015) are the first 2 completed parts of a 'pre-crime triptych' planned to be finalized in 2017. Both art pieces revolve around a 'fictitious hi-tech weapon' presented in a 'real environment.' In the case of ID Sniper that environment was an arms fair in China ("China Police 2002") and in the case of Face Jagger: a surveillance fair in California ("ASIS 2016"). The third and final part of the triptych will take part in Europe.
"Face Jagger ( performance still)", photographic print, 30 x 50 inches, Jakob S. Boeskov, 2015
"Face Jagger", 33x34x23 inches, 3D printed facemasks, flightcase, LED lightstrip, Jakob S. Boeskov, 2015
Each part of the triptych represents an artistic action that deals with the notion of “pre-crime”—a term coined by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. This concept describes methods of stopping crimes not yet committed. The concept was introduced in a novel from 1956, but the term could be used to describe many current practices in contemporary law enforcement and military strategy. In each part of the Pre-Crime Triptych I present an “imaginary weapon” in a real environment. In the past I have called this artistic practice “Sci-Fi Conceptual Art” or “Fictionism,” and although those terms were not precise, they helped explain the projects’ operations. A more precise term to describe the technique used in the Pre-Crime Triptych would be “The Artefact Method.”
1: An artefact, here defined as “a product from the future,” will be presented in a “real environment” (not an art space)
2: The artist will exhibit and present the artifact in the “real environment”
3: Nobody in this environment may know that the artist is an artist (this means that the artist must be alone)
4: When the piece is finally exhibited in an art space, it will consist of two elements: the artefact and a documentation of the environment where the artefact was originally exhibited
"ID Sniper" (performance still), photographic print, 30 x 50 inches, Jakob S. Boeskov, 2002
The Artefact Method is a homemade art method. Art created using this method dissolves walls between literature and art, technology and magic, high art and kitsch. It is art that is not easy to categorize but that’s how it must be. This is not career art. This art is as awkward on the walls of the bourgeois art collector as it is at the comfortably curated “radical” exhibition. This art comes from everywhere and belongs nowhere.
"ID Sniper" 70x50x20 inches, 3D printing, steel, aluminium, mounted in plexiglass case, Jakob S. Boeskov @ Populism, Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2005.
The first part of the Pre-Crime Triptych took place in China and the second part took place in America. The third and final part will take place in Europe. In this way, the triptych will span the three dominant empires today. The idea of the trilogy is to make a work that is global—not in any cultural sense, but in a technological sense: to explore new technology and how it is implemented across Earth.
- Jakob S. Boeskov
Below: Talk on the Pre Crime Triptych at The National Arts Club, New York, March 14th 2017
(Please note: No video/audio only for the first 30 seconds)