Membership Has Its Privileges is a copper etching of a coveted black American Express card, an object associated with exclusivity, status, and wealth. By transferring the card's details onto a more modest surface of copper — the metal of the American penny — I aim to poke fun at notions of privilege and exclusion symbolized by invitation-only credit cards.

In rendering the black American Express card in plain copper, I juxtapose its aura of exclusivity with copper's ordinary, utilitarian essence. Just as copper can gain value through purposeful shaping, I suggest that true membership and belonging come not from outside validation but from within our common ground.