Commissions
What I take on
Three kinds of job, and what each one honestly does not include.
Reconstruction
An object that is known but gone: a drawing, a fragment, a line in a catalog.
Usual durationSix to ten weeks
Includes
- Reading the sources together
- One modeled object, aged to the period
- Three lit views at print size
- A written note on every decision I made
- One round of revisions
Does not include
- A physical cast
- Any claim that the result is the object
- Exhibition text or wall labels
Exhibition piece
A work made for one room, at the size that room can actually carry.
Usual durationEight to fourteen weeks
Includes
- One object built for the wall it will hang on
- Print files up to 200 cm
- A proof print for approval
- Installation notes for your framer
Does not include
- Framing and hanging
- Shipping and insurance
- A second edition of the same piece
Cover and editorial
One image for a jacket, a sleeve or a feature, with the crop already solved.
Usual durationThree to five weeks
Includes
- Two directions before the build starts
- One finished object, one view
- Files cut to your trim and bleed
- One round of revisions
Does not include
- Typesetting or layout
- Exclusivity beyond the licensed term
- Sequels using the same object
Fees
What a commission costs
Cover and editorial
One image, one view, licensed for a named use.
From$3,200
What moves it
- Territory beyond one country
- Exclusivity longer than eighteen months
- A second crop for another format
- A title that can wait ten weeks
Reconstruction
An object rebuilt from whatever survives of it.
From$6,500
What moves it
- Every additional object in the set
- Sources that disagree with each other
- A deadline inside six weeks
- A collection that already holds a scan
Exhibition piece
A work made for one room and printed at its size.
From$9,000
What moves it
- Print size beyond 150 cm
- More than one piece for the same room
- A cast taken from the geometry
- A show more than a year out
All figures are in US dollars and exclude framing, shipping and any physical production. Museums and public collections are quoted at two thirds of these.
How it runs
A commission, step by step
The brief
You tell me the object, the room it is for and the date it has to exist by.
Sources
I read what survives and come back with what can honestly be built, and what cannot.
Two directions
Two rough builds, lit and rendered small, so we argue about the object rather than the picture.
You choose
One direction, and any change to it. After this the geometry is fixed.
Building
The object is finished clean. Nothing is aged until the shape is right.
Ageing
The passes go on one at a time, and you see it at every century.
Proof and delivery
A proof print for approval, then the files, the notes and the color reference.
Questions
The things people ask before they write
- Can you make it look like a specific object I already own?
- No, and I will say so on the first call. I will build in the same tradition, the same alloy and the same period of wear, but a copy of a real object is a forgery with extra steps.
- Do I get the 3D file?
- Not by default. The prints are the work. If a file has to travel, for a projection or a fabricator, we write that into the commission and price it separately.
- Who owns the object afterwards?
- I keep the copyright and you get the licence we agreed, in writing, before I start. For an exhibition piece that is usually unlimited display and no reproduction.
- Can it be cast in bronze?
- Sometimes. The geometry has to survive being real, which not every object does, and the foundry in Kadikoy needs three months. It is quoted on top.
- How do you handle a museum's provenance concerns?
- Every commission ships with a note listing what is sourced, what is inferred and what I invented outright. Two collections have hung that note beside the work.