CJ HENDRY (B. 1988) Copyright Infringment Cardboard box, T-shirt 13 1/2 × 13 3/4 × 7 1/2 inches (34.3 × 34.9 × 19.1 cm) Executed in 2018. This is from an edition of 100. A first edition box from CJ Hendry's "Copyright Infringement" project, recovered from the original September 2018 NYC drop on the corner of 22nd Street and Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. The project began that year after the Brooklyn-based artist received a cease-and-desist from the Muhammad Ali estate over a body of hyperrealistic, hand-drawn work she had made of the boxer — drawings she had subsequently printed onto T-shirts and intended to sell. Forced to take the inventory off the commercial market, Hendry packed the shirts into bright red cardboard boxes labeled "COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT / TRASH ONLY," then drove around New York at dawn placing them on street corners. Each drop location was documented in real time on her Instagram stories so her audience could race to find them. The September 2018 drop was the foundational edition of the project — the moment Hendry turned a legal restriction into the seed of one of the defining art-world events of late-2010s social media culture. The project has since expanded into a recurring international scavenger hunt, now subject of its own documentary. First edition, unopened boxes from the original NYC run are rare in and of themselves. This example was lifted directly from the corner of 22nd and Ninth, with the original artist designed print T-shirt and packaging intact.
