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Money Stories
Grad- Show 2016 | Art-School Project
As part of the Fine Art Painting and contextual referencing module, this is a project where I chose to explore the theme of 'Money'. The main objective was to explore different mediums and reference art movements with reference to one's work.
Idea
Money seems to have become a means to an end. Most of us are chasing after it constantly, and yet when we have it we're unable to enjoy it.
While this series in particular highlights the negative connotations attached to it, my idea behind it was to understand better the stories (beliefs) that we're carrying around it and ask ourselves: What is Money? What kind of values are we placing on it? Does it really change us? How can we stop chasing it?
Concept
Using the ideals of surrealism and Symbolism
(Read more about the art movements on https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/surrealism,
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/symbolism)
, each piece of art highlights one aspect of money like:
The Addiction
Medium : Coffee
Titled ' The Addiction ', this piece is about the 'addiction' to money.
Just like a drug, when we place too much importance on it,we can become addicted to it. And one constantly keeps wanting more and more , with satisfaction and happiness that lasts only for a moment.
The Corrupt
Medium : Oil
Titled ' The Corrupt ', this piece is about the 'power' of money.
There is this belief that ' Money means Power, and power or rather absolute power corrupts eventually '.
And so just like ' the three monkeys' that represent ' see, hear and speak no evil ', money has been used as a symbol to depict the blind-eye-ear-mouth certain people with power turn towards problems .
The Fake
Medium : Acrylic
Titled ' The Fake ', this piece is about the 'greed' for money.
Sometimes people stick around as long as one has money. Green being the colour associated with wealth and greed has been used along with dollar symbols, and gold lines to represent the fake greedy nature of certain people.
The Guest
Medium : Watercolour
Titled ' The Guest ', this piece is about the 'impermanence' of money.
Similar to water in manner of flow, the tap and drain symbolize how it flows in and out of our lives. On the otherhand the notes reducing to scraps with no value represent the scarcity.
Money Stories | Grad- Show Exhibit
Medium : Acrylic, Watercolour
As part of the final exhibit, this particular piece was a combination of three of the above aspects of money. Using the ideals of Social Realism and taking inspiration from Milan based artists Carnovsky's RGB Art style ( Read More about them on https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/96,
https://www.carnovsky.com/RGB.htm ),
each coloured light in this piece was chosen accordingly to the particular aspect of money : Red for it's intensity to represent addiction, Green as a symbol of wealth, greed to represent corruption, and Blue for flow, water to represent impermanence.