The piece was in two parts:
Original Version: 'M_US__EUM (postmortemism)' 2007/08
Neon, video (w/Scott Wayne Indiana), edition of 5
Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, OR); Bureau for Open Culture (Columbus, OH), bureauforopenculture.org/projects/of-other-spaces-publication

Revision: 'Postmortemism (v.2)' 2014-17
Neon, Stainless Steel, Unique Edition
Vanhaerents Art Collection (Brussels, Belgium), 'Man in the Mirror' exhibition vanhaerentsartcollection.com/previous-exhibitions/
'M_US__EUM (postmortemism)' (2007/2014), Neon
from the Vanhaerents Art Collection

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"In late 2013 Mr. Walter Vanhaerents made an initial inquiry when he contacted artist TJ Norris regarding the availability of an editioned work from 2007 (in collaboration with Scott Wayne Indiana) titled ‘M_US__EUM (postmortemism)’. Mr. Vanhaerents was not interested in purchasing this edition (#3/3) for his collection, however, proposed a new and unique work be commissioned. Norris conceded the possibility to do so after considering a revisit/deconstruction/follow-up to the earlier concept would be an interesting challenge. The editioned work was developed as a one-time only collaboration when Norris was invited by the Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, OR) to co-invite a collaborator to take part in an exhibition in 2007. After choosing Indiana as his collaborator, Norris agreed to develop a piece with two components based, in part, on the game Hangman to play on words. Indiana’s idea was to create a more literal wooden sculpture in the form of a gallows and created a maquette which was subsequently rejected by Norris. Instead, with a short deadline, Norris decided to develop a work in neon, upon which they both agreed would be the direction. The concept was built around a playful response to the tradition that most museums primarily celebrate and present the work of dead artists.
The resulting work was a static neon piece (in an edition of three with two artist proofs) which was designed and developed with a fabricator in Oregon exclusively by Norris. This work was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Aqua Miami (Art Basel) and at the Bureau for Open Culture curated by James Voorhies as well as published in the book ‘Beyond Trend’ (F&W Publications; Matt Mattus, editor). The piece was presented live and virtually (including an accompanying video created by Indiana for on-line viewing). To view the video postcards were distributed with this website (YouTube): www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDAZiavnGaY

‘Postmortemism II’ is a commissioned, unique work (w/a single AP) under the sole authorship of artist TJ Norris. It is not an edition. With the juxtaposition of the words museum and mausoleum electronically animated, mounted on a reflective steel, and partially reversed the notion is that this work has a post-conceptual stance. The steel becomes a shiny mirror, in effect, reflecting the viewer/gaze, referentially punning Lewis Carroll’s looking glass. The words are reclaimed only by their reflection as they are lit and bounce from the surface (on and off). The neon is animated to alternate between the two keywords, playing on the location in which it is housed, but tripping the fact that the work has a permanent home within a private collection.
This piece broadly traverses the aforementioned editioned work’s rough presentation in form and function. This commission is now mounted within a steel housing that conceals all the mechanics and wiring, as a compact unit -- it also differs greatly in scale as ‘Postmortemism II’ is nearly two feet larger. This new work is only in part a reaction to the original concept itself, updating and provoking most theories as subject, fragile or malleable. ‘Postmortemism II’ is, for all intents and purposes, an act of response, to the isms of traditional (archaic) museum practices, and a reflection of given today’s emerging virtual/social network construct."