Rutherford Chang at Kunsthal Rotterdam

We Buy White Albums

It’s not a joke. Or a statement made solely for this exhibition. New York based artist Rutherford Chang will buy any edition of The Beatles-album “The Beatles”, better known as the “White Album”, he can get his hands on.

By now he owns 2,643 copies of the seemingly completely blank, white albums. Which he displays in his installation piece “We Buy White Albums” where the public is free to browse through boxes and boxes of identical albums. And listen to them on one of the turntables.

But are they identical? For starters, every edition of the album had a unique number stamped onto it. Furthermore: every album has made its way through the years since 1968, collecting all sorts of stains, decorations and other marks of time past. Making these mass produced items gradually become unique.

If you happen to have a “White Album” lying around that you might want to donate, or sell, contact webuywhitealbums@gmail.com!
You can check out all (!) albums on @webuywhitealbums.

👨‍🎨 Rutherford Chang (b. 1979)
🖼️ We Buy White Albums (2007-2020)
🏛️ Kunsthal, Rotterdam
🎟️ Black Album/White Cube
📅 20 June – 10 January (2021)