The first step in making “Mutilated Currency. Blood Gold” involved rubbing the dollar bill against a stone in order to erase its data.  It is a time consuming physical labor like polishing something. It is also destructive and illegal. I imagined getting paid a dollar a minute to perform this action. I have not calculated how much currency I could mutilate in this manner in the course of an hour, but I would certainly earn more than I destroyed regardless of my pace. Destructive, violent, illegal government / corporate action is lucrative in our system. This poetic act of justice and its imaginary compensation is a quiet protest.  

 

In the process of rubbing the bill a choice was made to go beyond erasure, to puncture,  removing the image of George Washington entirely. Dots of dark red pigment replace the image of the president. The shape of the puncture on the back of the bill is a vagina symbol, referencing the potential for the birth of a new value system, while the stripes refer to prisons of all kinds. The embellishments are a combination of pigment, flowers and gold leaf.  The treatments are intended to evoke material extraction from the earth and raise questions of value. The piece is intentionally crafted, fragile, and beautiful.            

 

Reproduction of “Manipulated Currency. Blood Gold” is the next level of transgression planned for the work.  I want to create an edition of risograph bills. Though not necessarily for Work Book, I am thinking the piece will translate particularly well in risograph because of the color and texture so I’m excited about your printing choice.  

 

In relation to the content of Work Book. The piece addresses labor and land, environmental collapse, global economic inequality, de-colonialist action, and the labor of craft and studio practice, as well as financial precarity.