21 December 1996

Art from Money

Since contemporary art's frequently about money, I thought it would be a good idea to make an unambiguous piece by making paper out of real money. Ritsuko Taho had a similar idea, but without my mercenary intent. I saw her work in a museum, where visitors were encouraged to combine shredded bank notes, soil and grass seed into a ball. The participants were then requested to write about money on a slip of paper and put the paper into the middle of the ball.

I think Taho missed the ball (so to speak), or maybe it's just one of those ideas that doesn't translate so well from east to west. It seems the whole point of making art from money is to appeal to people's greed. I didn't make a grass ball, but I did take some shredded bank notes.