Bootlegs Without Originals: AST, Infringed Realism, & Personal Effects (2007-2026) Exhibition of non–art objects created by Alan S. Tofighi as a fabricator, electronics designer, & gifts accompanied by art objects made for the show. A readymade of the self, the work is unified by the practice of bootlegging & piracy, the entryway for Tofighi’s professional & artistic practice.
Unlike copies, bootlegs are variable objects standing apart from a source by accessibility. It plays a source’s truth & fakery tastes of its maker wearing difference, & access. Objects in the show include recreated works from unpaid labor, replications of a toy drone modeled after the classified RQ-170 drone captured by the Iranian government, a personal hard drive full of pirated material, & a painting on the most consequential bootlegs/clones in a style of commercial bootleg sign painting.