Sumi Perera, “TOP 10 WCC [White Collar Crime]”

Perera-1
Closed book. Mezzotint print stitched onto an embossed black dust jacket.

Perera-2
White blind embossed inner sleeve & tags, one page and black blind embossed dust jacket with mezzotint plaque.

Perera-3
Close-up of blind embossed tags.

Perera-4
Printed tags-made more visible.

Perera-5
Mezzotint with inserted tags.

 


 
Sumi Perera (Redhill, Surrey, U.K.)
saatchionline.com

TOP 10 WCC [White Collar Crime]
2014
open-bite acid etching, embossing, mezzotint, inkjet & stitch
Edition of 10
10 pages and 40 tags to cut up and insert
21.5 x 14.75 x 1.5 cm

Who selects the Top 10?

Ten loose pages depicting ten vintage white collars can be arranged to form a book of white-collar crimes (WCC). Lists of ten prosecuted criminals, ten prosecutors, and ten cinematic (both fictional and non-fictional) criminals are provided as ‘tags’ to cut up and re-insert so that the editorial control is handed to the reader to re-sequence the criminals, their sentences and prosecutors. In rearranging these crimes, the reader is asked to speculate on different outcomes in alternative circumstances. DIY kit to complete the book with dust jacket [etched embossed sleeve on black Somerset paper 300g 
with a mezzotint print stitched in a red thread].
 Loose unbound pages of mezzotints depicting ten vintage white collars & fragments of text on white Somerset paper 300g.

The black ink from the sleeve (dust jacket) rubs off on the inner white envelope with embossed raised text each time the book is withdrawn. This is a serendipitous intervention, where the dust jacket is unable to protect the book, but instead tarnishes the pristine white book.

An appropriate transference as it is symbolic of the phrase: ‘if you lie with dogs, you rise with fleas’ =[if you associate with evil people their habits are bound to rub off on you.] Most White Collars Criminals justify their actions, find legal loopholes and blur boundaries.

Crime is often neither black nor white, but shades of grey.

[Copies acquired for the Tate Britain Special Collections (2015) & the Leeds Library Artist Book Collection (2014)]