Walead Beshty’s art frequently exhibits the traces of its circulation through the world. Rather than detached objects that are preserved, his work conveys how objects may accrue meaning and change through their interaction with people and their actions on and around art. Copper Surrogates is a series in which polished copper sheets are handled without gloves by the museum technicians that install the works. Copper, susceptible to oxidation from contact with skin oils and acids, is here only touched during the work’s installation, and records the labor involved in its handling. This triptych, produced in China, Los Angeles, and Miami Beach, captures traces left by art professionals, offering both comparisons and parallels in the immaterial labor performed across different times and places.