A.J.E. Bootlegs Artist Statement

Statement submitted with the following two artworks for the Art Groupie exhibition, September 2008:

When I was a teenager, cassettes were the way to build a collection on a budget. Countless C-90s and C-60s were amassed, copied from friends' copies. I always liked to make my own tape covers, religiously hand copying the fonts from the originals. It was the beginning of an obsession with music packaging, which has grown into a significant factor of my own music – both as a musician and in running a microlabel. In part this collection is an homage to my youth.

There is currently great debate about the ethics of digital music distribution. I'm keen to be a part of that debate. The plan is to hand draw my favourite 100 albums which I own. These are the first two in that project. Their number reflects their current position in my top 100 list. As it stands, under current Australian law, these copies are not illegal as I own the original CDs and still own these copies. However, as soon as you decide to purchase one, they will become technically illegal. But, of course, music piracy has many shades of grey – I would assume you won't be buying one of these because you want to own a CD-R copy of the album – it would be much cheaper and easier to head to JB-HiFi or i-Tunes, or switch on your copy of Limewire. You will be buying an idea, plus a little bit of my nostalgia and musical taste, and I'm not quite sure where the law stands on that.