Soft Power (HTSUS 7411.10.10) consists of a single length of refined copper tube. Industrially produced in Germany, manually bent by the artist, and imported into the United States.

The titles appendix refers to the US Harmonized Tariff Schedule, where “refined copper, tubes and pipes, seamless” is listed under code 7411.10.10. As copper has become a strategic resource - essential to data centres, electrical grids, defence and manufacturing - the United States has imposed an additional 50% tariff on a wide range of imported copper products from Germany.

Following common import protocol, Acker entered into correspondence with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to establish whether the object should be treated as a copper product or recognised as a duty-free work of art.

At what point does a copper tube become a sculpture, and who determines its classification? Is it the minimal gesture of bending the tube that transforms it, or simply the artist’s credentials and declaration that it is art? And, as a consequence, how is it allowed to move?

Soft Power (HTSUS 7411.10.10) was first exhibited in We Love the Heat and the Heat Loves Us, a group show at Hollywood’s S-Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition was part of B_LA_M, a three-year art exchange program between Berlin, Los Angeles and Mexico City.

Soft Power is conceived as an ongoing series. Each work begins with a specific state-defined material form and subjects it to a simple physical intervention: rendering it unexpectedly soft.