A Provisional Patent Application Status Indication Device, called Rebus (1/4)

A Provisional Patent Application Status Indication Device, called Rebus is the result of a co-operation between the artist and a patent agent which began when the artist consulted the agent for the preparation of a patent application. The consultation required both parties to sign a mutual nondisclosure agreement prohibiting the publication of any confidential information about the invention. Incited by these events Oscar Hugal asked the patent agent if she could provide him with 3 existing applications and an equal amount of 20th century artworks that could function as ‘prior art’ or reference points. The result is —among others— a set of three prints where each one is a juxtaposition between an image of an existing artwork and a patent application. The work is constructed as a riddle and aims to indirectly describe the original invention.