Andrea Bowers’ installation work on display at Art Basel, which appropriates information and images that were already in the public domain as part of the #MeToo movement and related reporting, would likely meet the requirements of ‘fair use’ if challenged in court. And the survivors who have spoken out against Open Secret do not dispute this. Per Rolling Stone, “Carney does not dispute the fact that her story and those of the other women are a matter of public record.” However, the survivors see Bowers’ public, commercial (the work is priced at $300k) use of their stories and Helen’s images, without their knowledge or consent, as a problem of ethics.
Read “using a woman’s bruised #metoo selfie without consent takes ‘appropriation art’ too far” on i-D