OUGD505: Studio Brief 1 - Research: Show Me The Money Exhibition

OUGD505: Studio Brief 1/ Licence to print money   

Show Me The Money Exhibition

Show me the money is an exhibition charting how the financial world has been imagined in art, illustration, photography and other visual media housed in the Peoples History Museum, Manchester. 

The exhibition asks: what does ‘the market’ look like?  What does money really stand for?  How can the abstractions of high finance be made visible?  Who is finance for?  The exhibition charts how the financial world has been imagined in art, illustration, photography and other visual media over the last three centuries in Britain and the United States. 

This exhibition was really useful to visit at the start of the brief to start thinking about money contextually and start to build up a picture of its history and application within different generations. The exhibition documented money relating to art, politics, finance and history in a range of media making the whole exhibition more engaging to its audience. 

I was attracted to this piece by Robin Bhattacharya entitled the ROBIN currency. It questions the relationship between art and money considering the concept of 'real wealth'  the currency is embedded with real gold flakes increasing the value of the physical note, making the concept of value more tangible. In his quest to discover the relationship between authority and aesthetic, the detail in these concepts are extensively developed to create a delicate medium that results in an engaging aesthetic that becomes functional within society. 

The ROBIN currency

Another exhibition piece that I was inspired by was the Zimbabwe One  Hundred Trillion Dollar note. Initially intrigued as to how one piece of paper can represent that much wealth, considered how the hyperinflation of the Zimbabwean dollar caused this result before it became extinct and the country adopted other countries currencies for everyday transactions. I was attracted to the colour palette used within the aesthetic, which worked well with the distinct typography and imagery that represented the culture and heritage of Zimbabwe to create an engaging banknote even though it seriously lacks feasibility. 

As well as a history of money the exhibition also documents more politically charged artwork  regarding the occupy movement, which is popularised on the idea that the economy is run to benefit the top 1% of the population. This artwork such as The beginning is near by Alexandra Clotfelta and Money Talks, 99% Walks by Anonymous is bold and engaging in its aesthetic to create art that will evoke emotion from its audience and raise awareness of political issues. 

My favourite piece from the exhibition was Graphs (2012) by Simon Roberts which was commissioned specially for show me the money. This piece presents a set of 56 graphs taken from newspaper reports surrounding the finical crisis of 2008. Roberts removes these axis to highlight it is impossible what these graphs actually signify. The simplicity of the aesthetic is bold and engaging creating a sense of enigma that will engage its audience. The minimal aesthetic is personally engaging and inspires me with ideas of how I could translate this style into my resolution to the brief. 

The exhibition was beneficial in allowing me to begin to think academically about the concept of money meaning more that just allowing one to buy things and considering the mass implications of money on art, politics and history. I can use this exhibition as inspiration for developing a more focused and conceptual concept in my resolution to the brief.