Pete Smith writes:

Running on a whirring projector, the 16-minute black-and-white film "Figure 3" shows a series of still images of what appear to be old artifacts. There are partly broken ceramic bowls and vases; pottery shards; dirty, woven mattes; old, crusty coins; and so on. The film is grainy, dusty and seemingly old itself, so it looks like an archaeological documentary made early in the last century.

It turns out, however, that all the supposed artifacts represented were made by hand by Mr. Sietsema. So the film is an elaborate fake designed to prompt thought about how we imagine, preserve, authenticate and forget the past and how institutions of art, archaeology and history shape that process.

To read the complete article, see:Spirals of Self-Reflection, Made by Methods Mysterious(www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/arts/design/08sietsema.html)

Pete Smith adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:QUICK QUIZ: WHAT ARE THESE COINS?(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n02a09.html)