Untitled is a signed photocopy print by Roe Ethridge produced on the occasion of Printed Matter’s 2017 Fall Benefit. The 8.125 x 10.625 inch print features a sepia toned skull sitting on a desk. The photograph is shrunken in a plane of metallic gold, bearing marks of fingerprints. The metallic background is reminiscent of an etching plate, yet acts as a container for the memento mori image. Conjuring up themes of death, mortality, while insisting on the ghost-like fingerprint marks of the artist, Ethridge insinuates a kind of haunting of indexicality.

Signed and Numbered

Roe Ethridge (b. 1969 in Miami, Florida) combines conceptual and commercial photography, sourcing images from outtakes from his own professional work as well as borrowed images. By combining these methods, Ethridge prods at photography’s descriptive power and challenges the viewer’s ability to decipher symbolic meaning from sales coercion. Many of Ethridge’s works include collage that reveals the masking and editing interventions on photographs from tools like Photoshop. Roe Ethridge has exhibited his work at MoMA PS1 in Queens, Barbican Center in London, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art in New York City and was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Ethridge lives and works in New York City.