With art, it is possible to be economical – especially in the current climate. For instance, the most expensive painting ever sold was No. 5, by Jackson Pollock. In 2006, David Martinez bought the painting in a private sale for the paltry sum of $140 million. Adjusting for inflation, that figure is now closer to $148.1 million. Although the 8′ x 4′ piece of art gave Martinez plenty of picture for the price, if he had applied himself he could have used the money, in a literal sense, to create his very own works of art, as these artists below have done.
1. Paper Cities
Image: Spluch
Creating a metropolis would usually involve a lot of money – however some cities are formed from as little as five bucks. Some clever soul over at Spluch created a number of city skylines from paper currency. Each silhouette is meant to represent the country of the note it’s made from, though we’re not sure why the Eiffel Tower and Arch de Triomphe are on the five pound note.
2. Laser-cut Cash
Image: Scott Campbell
Tattoo artist Scott Campbell created some amazing money art by lasering some of his tattoo designs into used dollar bills. The result is pretty spectacular, and they’re an amazing advertisement for his tattooing abilities because the precision needed to create some of them is unbelievably intricate.
3. Skeleton Queens
Images: Martin Goodwin and Selectism
Proving that drawing-on-money can force a new way of looking at things, Jake and Dinos Chapman doodle on a £20 note at Frieze Art Fair to create this terrifying modification of Queen Elizabeth. While some may question why an eighty-three year old looks so young on the currency, the brothers work may have aged her a little too far.
4. Bilingual Money
Image: Institute of International Visual Arts
The artist responsible for this creation, Yoan Capote, is using money as art, and the importance of money itself, for political purposes. By combining the US quarter with a 20 cent Cuban coin, Capote brings the wealth of the two countries, and their financial and ideological systems, into direct opposition. The coins similarity in shape and colour act as a symbol of unification, suggesting the two countries could work together in harmony despite theses differences.
5. True Patriots
Image: David Kam
David Kam is another money-drawer, not because the printed President looks vaguely like an old TV host, but rather because the medium (the dollar note) is vital to the work’s meaning. By overlaying images of love and patriotism on the notes, Kam is either fully supporting the capitalization of art, or vividly condemning it. If you know which, please send answers written on a bill of large denomination.
6. Banksy’s Coronation of Diana
Images: Hong Kong Hustle and Daily Mail
Guerilla artist Banksy uses a more complicated way of editing money than simply drawing on it. Banksy has superimposed a picture of Princess Diana onto a £10 note in the style of the Queen’s head, which is traditionally found on all British currency. Banksy’s work shows how naturally the Peoples’ Princess would feature on the national currency, had she not have divorced Prince Charles in a separation where Charles is often viewed as the bad guy.
7. Dollar Installations
Srdjan Loncar uses these bundles of cash, surrounded by a stark room, to question the value of money itself – what use would all this money be if it alone cannot alter the drab setting it inhabits? Loncar is concerned with the complex division between society’s implicit desire for money, despite an understanding of the worthlessness of money when it is stripped of its meaning and value, when it becomes merely bundles of paper.
8. Money Suits
Image: Kyara Rune
While David Kam and Banksy used the money-form to create a ideological point, many people simply use the form to create pretty origami – here is an example of a suit. While it is possible to draw parallels between the symbolism of the suit, a sign of the businessman and finance, and the origami-suit made of money, this may be putting too much cultural currency and meaning into a simple folding exercise.
9. Money Hats
Images: unknown and KateMonkey
If the money suit was difficult find a deeper meaning in, the man-in-hat origami is, perhaps, impossible. What it does do, however, is exploit the form of the note, and the printed face, to create an interesting object. Another moneygami fiend has fashioned a turban out of a fiver. Good look.
10. Money Bears
Image: CSlacker
Beyond origami, paper sculpting utilizes the material benefits of the dollar bill, the slightly stronger cotton and linen weave, and turns it into some amazing creations – including this self-standing dollar bear.
Why not have a go at making your own moneygami by following one of the many instructional videos on You Tube?
quite awesome, but i want to unfold all that paper, i can think of better uses for it.
Hey Piyush, thanks for your comment. I also could find a use for an extra few banknotes!
These are amazing, I especially love the Skeleton Queens ones.