Certificate of Inauthenticity: Balloon Dog

Description: This work is a rare art certificate of inauthenticity for Balloon Dog. Owners can prove that it is not the real thing (Balloon Dog) with the cryptographic certainty of the blockchain. The Certificate of Inauthenticity (2020) project, involving ERC-721 Tokens, stems from the earlier Share-able Readymades initiative, where artists Christine Webber and Bassam Kurdali were commissioned to create 3D printable models of iconic art objects like a urinal, a balloon dog, and a pipe. These pieces, copyrighted but licensed under Creative Commons, critiqued how art history transforms everyday items into neo-conceptual art. To make the link between off-chain truth and the problem of authenticity explicit Rhea Myers created a Rare Art edition of Certificates of Inauthenticity for the Shareable Readymades series. While the CC-BY-SA license allows anyone to present a 3D printed or VR-version of Urinal, Balloon Dog or Pipe, the Certificate of Inauthenticity proves that Rhea Myers has not created these instances. The piece of art is probably inauthentic and you have no more ownership of it than anyone else. The blockchain plays the role of the operational medium for concept art.