In my recent works I paint subject matter borrowed
from coins and paper money. It is not difficult to
relate this direction of my art to my training as an
artist in a totalitarian country. Power makes itself
visible in everyday objects through the imprint of
symbolic images. The visual motifs I use in these
works suggest the ways in which coins and paper money
legitimize power through constantly reminding us of
it.
Before coins became a form of exchange they were used
as tokens of participation in tribal religious
ceremonies. Lacking intrinsic value, coins are similar
to artwork as both depend on a socially contracted
sense of worth. In themselves the materials, of which
contemporary money and art objects are made, are
generally worth little––yet, as a society, we agree to
give them value.
Through the imprint of symbolic images, money also
serves as communal memory. Industrialism facilitated
the formation of a sense of national belonging through
the consumption of the mass-printed word and image,
possibly the most powerful example of which is money.
Above and beyond its buying power, money promotes a
sense of security and national participation.
The characteristics of money outlined above appear
aesthetically transformed in my work. When I draw with
glitter I suggest a link to miniature Byzantine
mosaics--private objects of devotion. The painting
process involves layer upon layer of oil paint on
canvas. At first glance the surface resembles a
topographic map of a hilly area, but a closer look
reveals a geological register of various human
everyday efforts. The heavy textured relief of the
paintings makes for visual transformations depending
on the quality and direction of the light. I like the
way light dances and bounces off the textured reliefs,
shifting the dynamic between abstraction and
representation and mirroring the multiple roles and
changing faces of money in society.
These oil canvases have been drying