Mimic is the first work created by Jeff Wall outside the studio. It opens a sequence of photographs depicting occurrences in the realm of the everyday. “In Mimic I presented something which I saw happening,” Wall recounted. “It happened right in front of me and I noticed it. It is always shocking to witness a violent or exploitative act…Since I’m an artist, I thought that this event, which drew my attention, excited me because it enabled me to create a picture. There is a moment here which is rife with energy, meaning, dynamism, and tension. It has meaning and it conveys it with great accuracy. Since I don’t engage in documentation, I enjoy a certain freedom to approach the event in different ways, to let it brew, even alter it slightly. On the one hand, this entails a loss, because I lose the original moment; on the other hand, I achieve artistic freedom as well as leeway. I am not obliged to return to the same place. I have a situation, and once the plasticity of the artistic situation acquires form, my responsibility is directed there and my personal approach to the event is already formulated