Hollingworth the Plagiarist

Special note: A sincere and heartfelt apology has been given. My response and reflection will be posted at a later time.

It has been brought to my attention that Thomas Hollingworth plagiarized my writing on Cai Guo-Qiang, here. Note particularly the epigraph, bold and in quotation marks but without a citation reference.

“Bristling with arrows that pin them to space, fake tigers flail aimlessly in ferociousness and beauty. In Cai Guo-Qiang’s Inopportune: Stage Two the baroque suffering that one would expect from such a piercing of arrows is not met by the tigers who bear them, and we may think of acupuncture needles as much as the hunt.”

This is my writing, in fact, the first few sentences of the essay as I wrote it. There are other obvious moments throughout Hollingworth's text as well. Here's a little one: "Although such shamanistic practices are not new, the presentation now of a ‘world healer’ by a globalizing art institution is, at the very least, curious" (Hollingworth) and the original sentence: "Such shamanistic practices are not new, but the presentation of a world healer by a globalizing art institution that everyone either ignores or loves to hate is, at the very least, curious." This is someone who plagiarizes and uses the first few sentences of the same essay he stole from as an uncited "epigraph." He also provides footnotes below, a sign of scholarship, but not his own as he is in fact using my citation of Krauss surrounded by plagiarized words and context.

Even more egregious, another version appears in an essay that he also published in Wynwood Magazine, presumably for pay. Take special note of the epigraph here: there are no quotation marks, as a responsible editor would have asked for the reference. And there is even a third essay published in M: The New York Art World, touting itself as "the insider's source for credible news."

Wrote Karen Justl, the sleuth: "I'm enrolled in an interdisciplinary graduate program at The Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. I'm doing research on facial expressions and body language, specifically on lying liars in the media. My critical theory professor will have some thoughts I'm sure...."

For a peek into such an inquiring mind, here is a link to a slideshow of Justl's caricatures, "People and Their Problems." They would be quirky if we didn't know them so well. Karen Justl:

Thank you, Karen Justl! All the evidence and links are thanks to your labor and credit is due. If only I could pay you...

Update: There are some pretty interesting issues regarding blog ethics and the image on Art Fag City and Newsgrist. Responding to Karen's inquiry, Hollingworth wrote,"As many a TV show host once said...the choice is yous.[sic.]" I see the difference between the issues raised in the fair use of images and plagiarism as involving the difference between truth and a lie - given our current political media context his statement is an alarming symptom of ethics in the media.

Catherine Spaeth

Photo credit: White Hot Magazine Further update: Many, many thanks to White Hot Magazine, for responding appropriately, even though you did not carry the plagiarized article in question. It appears that you have taken down Hollingworth pages, and I greatly appreciate it. I would like to add that while I know magazines don't really know what kind of background their freelancers have, it is in fact their job to know, to make good choices and not to pick just any eager writer willing to work for free. There are enough good writers out there, ones who aren't merely showcasing "mots du jour" and advertising themselves through other's words - find out who they are and pay them. This is what an insider knows - be one.