For his new show, the artist will create a fake identity based on your real information.
He isn’t helping underage college kids buy beer, but artist Paul Ramírez Jonas is making fake IDs at his exhibition and residency “Half Truths” at New York’s New Museum. Visitors can pick theirs up during museum hours, and cardholders get free admission to the New Museum through the end of the summer.
The performance piece, titled Fake IDs, is staffed by members of the Teen Apprentice Program, which offers summer employment to young people. To take part, visitors must temporarily turn over the non-monetary contents of their wallets, such as their credit cards, licenses, work or student IDs, library cards, and even coffee loyalty cards.
Ramírez Jonas, or a member of his teenaged team, stationed at a folding table, will make color copies of each document on sticker paper. From there, he will cut and paste elements from all your various IDs—a photo from one, an address from another—onto a blank card, based on your selections. “We try to make a brand new identity for you out of your old identity,” Ramírez Jonas explained in an audio guide available on the museum website. read more