From this morning's New York Times (third item):
"A video installation by the Singaporean artist Lynn Lu has been withdrawn from the Singapore Art Show after Ms. Lu conceded its close resemblance to the work of an American artist, Jason Mortara. ... Mr. Mortara wrote to the National Arts Council in Singapore to declare that Ms. Lu’s work ... was 'a substantively direct copy of a copyrighted piece' that he created in 2002 .... In it he used ink to write memories from his life on pieces of toilet paper before burning them over a candle. In [her work. entitled 'X'] Ms. Lu wrote the names of former friends, colleagues and lovers on toilet paper using apple juice so that the names would appear briefly when exposed to the heat of the candle. Mr. Mortara said a 'coincidence' was 'impossible,' because he and Ms. Lu knew each other and they had performed on the same night at a show in San Francisco in 2003. After questioning by Heman Chong, curator of the Singapore show, Ms. Lu said that she had been inspired by Mr. Mortara’s work and that she and he had agreed to retitle her installation 'X (After "Memories Revisited" by Jason Mortara)' and to share the small grant she had received for her work. She said: 'It had not occurred to me before this that Mr. Mortara would consider "X" a copyright infringement of his work, as artists often influence each other, but I saw it as a grave insensitivity and carelessness on my part. I apologized to Mr. Mortara for my poor judgment, and suggested crediting him' with the new title."
Ed Winkleman says Lu was "unquestionably referencing Mortara a bit too closely," but, given that "artists reference other artists all the time," isn't sure pulling the work from the exhibition was necessary. Sergio Muñoz-Sarmiento comments: "Artists: beware of your studio visits and friends!" This is actually a really good test case for the famous distinction between the expression of an idea and the idea itself. Legally, only the former is protected. That is, no one can "own" the idea of inscribing toilet paper with text and then exposing it to a burning candle. But an artist can obtain protection for a particular expression of that idea, and if someone else expresses the idea too much in the same way as the original, an infringement claim may be possible. On quick glance, it appears Lu may well have crossed that line here.
UPDATE: Ed hears from all the relevant players.
