Are they artists? : Chiara Goia's "Sculptors Village"

"Dong Cheng, in China, is a village where every commercial activity turns about the reproduction of more or less famous sculptures." Italian photographer, Chiara Goia, documented workers chiseling away faux reproductions of renowned classical sculptures for her “Sculptors Village" series.

What triggered me about these images was the question of “artist.” These workers dedicate their entire time (and probably life) carving and chiseling with their tools, producing imitations - “perfect clones” - of the original statues. The very fact that what these workers are creating “fakes” and, in a sense, counterfeit products, excludes them from the title of an “artist.” They don’t get to share their identities or even their names. When these sculptures are delivered somewhere else, people don’t care about who created the fake Michelangelo’s David or any of the workers’ names. ”In this context, the creators of these ‘fakes’ assume a marginal position and then almost disappear behind the ‘real’ authors that they copy. Even more oddly, they end up blending with the same reproductions they have been molding and portraying. Reproductions of something that is already reproducing something.”

Does this mean that these workers are not artists? Can we define them asartists? These workers have created these “fakes” with their hands; they have fulfilled “a very physical and tangible job” that requires highly-specialized skill and precision. On another thought, don’t we see these “fakes” as art? Aren’t they art?

Bringing in my art history studies, some of the common components to classifyart are: craft/skill, mimesis(resemblance to reality), aesthetic(beauty), expression. Thus, I cannot but agree that these “fakes,” despite being a “copy” are in fact art (though “expression” may be a difficult term to associate in this context). But however you define art, when you see a fake David in the park, let’s say, you’d probably classify it as art. Maybe not original (in the sense of the term as both a noun and an adjective), but certainly art. (I certainly would.) Then doesn’t that identify these workers as artists? 

quotes of goia and images from chiaragoia.com