Do money grow on trees?
This is not just a rhetorical question, or not even an actual question asked by naive children, or even more so, asked by exasperated parents when their naive (and unreasonable) children ask for useless expensive things, as if trees grow unlimited fruits and goods for us to take and use, anyway. No. This question, beyond its scolding tone at times, or metaphorical meaning for wealth and abundance in other contexts, has the goal to examine the value of art as currency in the exhibition with the same name at the Bank and Savings Museum: Do money grow on trees?
As an artist, I've been challenged by the idea of "money" since I first declared that I want to be an artist, being met by the perpetually asked question: How are you going to make money out of art? Of course, I am not unique in this matter, and for sure it is a question that many creative or craft-oriented people have received, or perhaps even more often, they asked themselves this (exhausting) question. Even by asking an artist this question implies that somehow art and artistic practices or objects have little or no economic value, but this is a subject for another time.
So, also as an artist, Lars Kraemmer found an answer to this question by making his own money - the ARTMONEY. The concept is simple: anybody can create their own artmoney and use it as currency, by following a few simple rules: it has to be a hand-made 12 x 18 cm piece on any kind of material, and its value is of 200 Danish Kroner, regardless of the complexity of the artwork or the status of the artist and its value on the art market. The artmoney can be used in shops and restaurants where they accept this type of currency, giving the opportunity to craft your own money and use it as means of putting in circulation your artwork, exposing it to the world. Obviously, I find this concept brilliant, and I joined the hundreds of artists who are creating artmoney in the world, and my first creations will be part of the Do money grow on trees? exhibition at the Bank and Savings Museum in Copenhagen. You can read more about this exhibition here, and check out my profile on the ARTMONEY website here.
For this exhibition - aimed to explore the times during the Corona crisis - my intention is to show something we hide these days, for matters of protection.
About my ARTMONEY series: “Under the Corona crisis, we as society and individuals, are thinking and reflecting on matters of protection and exposure more than ever. When are we protected? When are we exposed? Are these questions going further than just the physical aspect of these issues? Who has any power to decide how and when are we exposed or protected? Are the LEADERS and the INVESTED FIGURES having any influence in these matters of “protection”? Is hiding or exposing our faces a matter of protection? From showing one’s face (niqab/burka), to hiding one’s face (protection mask), the discourse is going in the direction of safety. However, when it’s what? Art for questions and reflections.”
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #001 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #002 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #003 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #004 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #005 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #006- ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #007 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #008 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #009 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
Protected Exposure - a (masked) portrait #010 - ARTMONEY - Pastel drawing on paper, 12 x 18 cm, Copenhagen, 2020
The Do money grow on trees? exhibition at the Bank and Savings Museum in Copenhagen is open from the 13th of September until August 2021, and the artmoney are available for purchase - 200 DKK.
Address: Bank and Savings Museum in Copenhagen - Overgaden neden Vandet 11, 1414 København K
So, do money grow on trees? Well, no. But you can make them yourself, use them with a fixed value, and in the same time create value that cannot be measured in money. Because, art goes beyond that, fortunately.