Rutherford Chang | The Beatles – We Buy White Albums

Rutherford Chang

The Beatles – We Buy White Albums

New York City, USA: Self-published, 2013

Double 12” vinyl LP set

Edition of 800

In 2012, I was invited by C Magazine to participate in a public conversation with Rutherford Chang called "Re-Translating Popular Culture in Contemporary Art.” We had both recently made artworks using the Beatles’ White Album as our source material. At the time, he owned 500 copies of the eponymously titled double album. 

Edition Art Fair director Bill Clarke (above, bottom) brought Chang back to Toronto four years later to present the collection, which at that point contained three times the number of White Album LPs. 

Chang would eventually amass over 3,400 copies of the record, according to his New York Times obituary. He died last month at the age of 45. 

His sister posted on Instagram that Chang had died in his home on January 24th. The cause of death remains unknown. 

The Beatles – We Buy White Albums is a limited-run, self-published double disk created by layering 100 unique used copies of the White Album. The gatefold sleeve cover and disc labels are composites of the weathered and graffitied originals. A 24 x 24 inch poster insert featuring images of the individual covers.

The project sold out quickly (he only had a few remaining copies by the time of his return trip to Toronto in 2016) so I’m grateful that he gifted me one, and grateful to have briefly known him. 

Discogs lists a single copy for €500.00, from Germany, here.