File:Michael Smith MUS-CO 1997.jpg

Installation by Michael Smith and Joshua White, MUS-CO (Installation view, Lauren Wittels, NYC, 1997). The image illustrates a key mid-career body of work in Michael Smith's career beginning in the 1990s, when he collaborated on immersive installations with artist-director Joshua White using his performance persona, "Mike." This work often satirized attempts at the American Dream, the capitalist system and the art world through "mockumentary" works or believable installations blurring fiction and reality. In this work, they presented Mike as the owner of a once successful lighting business, now in the throes of bankruptcy, with a complete office, showroom with aging wares and specially created product misfires and a promotional video, among other features. This work has been publicly exhibited in prominent venues, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications, and acquired by a major museum.

Artist Michael Smith. Copyright held by the artist.

Michael Smith (performance artist)

Installation view

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key mid-career body of work in Michael Smith's career beginning in the 1990s: his collaborative installations with artist-director Joshua White using his performance persona, "Mike." This work frequently focused on attempts to achieve the American Dream, through the capitalist system, entrepreneurial schemes or the art world and often took the form of mixed or prefigured genres, such as "mockumentaries", reality TV, adult-oriented "kid shows," or what critic Jerry Saltz called "installation verité." Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this early stage and body of work, which brought Smith recognition through exhibitions and performances in art-world and mainstream venues and media outlets and coverage by major critics and publications. Smith's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Michael Smith, and the work no longer is viewable, so the image 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.