This exhibition addresses a timely financial theme, revolving around money and the anxiety that its absence or loss can produce. Borrowing from a nineteenth-century form of entertainment, the megalethoscope, everyday vignettes are transformed into private scenes in which persistent financial concerns are illuminated.
These scenes are printed on handmade paper that is comprised of the same fibers contained in U.S. currency, and embedded with the textual “insecurities” that often consume those in financial crisis. These concerns, guarded beneath the surface, remain invisible until the light is manipulated to reveal them.
Viewers are invited to participate in a currency “exchange,” encouraging a consideration of both the status of financial wealth and the role of the artist in society.
Slang bills are handmade 25% linen/75% cotton paper and are actual U.S. bill size
Images are half plate (5 ½ “ x 4 ¼ “), gold toned salt prints on handmade 25% linen/75% cotton paper with watermark text from wet-plate collodion glass plate negative.
Viewing devices are poplar, milk paint, with a dimmer switch.
This body of work was made in 2010.