Greenbacks Project pairs the US and China through our currencies. The US Dollar and Chinese Yuan are tied more closely, and affect more peoples' lives, than ever before.
For the project, US $1s and Chinese 1 Yuan notes, printed in different shades of green according to the aesthetics and messages their leaders prefer, are carved into the shapes of words people associate with money in different languages. Participants are all affected by fortunes tied to the Chinese and US economies. Mao and Washington's faces have been whitewashed over, leaving the verso of the bills green.
The design is loosely based on carpets created in Northwest China (Xinjiang), where Han Chinese and Persian influences were fused into unique designs. In this predominantly Muslim region, many are now being persecuted for their beliefs.
Process: US and Chinese currencies were covered in acrylic to erase the faces of the men on front: Mao Zedong - whose decisions in later years provoked famines and chaos which killed millions - and George Washington, a slave owner and part of America's legacy of white supremacy.
The whitewashing renders the bills invalid, a clean slate for the words which are carved into them. It also refers to money laundering, a foundation of international financial markets as well as the art world.
Project participants came from a host of national and linguistic backgrounds. They were asked: "Tell me a word you think of, when you think about money. Money is something we use every day, it has power over us, causes us stress or happiness. But it has as much power as we give it."
After carving, selected bills are mounted on bubble wrap and canvas.
Greenbacks Performance 1
Location: Central Hong Kong, outside Standard Chartered Bank, International Finance Centre.
Soliciting words related to money from passersby. The security guard did not donate any words but tolerated the artist's presence thanks to a note in Chinese describing the project.
Sundays are the one day per week when Hong Kong's domestic helpers have time off. They are paid low wages (around US$600/month) and employed on visas which do not allow them residency in the city. Most are from Indonesia and the Philippines, must leave family and children behind, and send the majority of their salaries home to their families.
A woman from the Philippines chose the word "Dahilan" -- "Reason" in Tagalog. Money is why she's come to Hong Kong, why she left her family, why she works so hard.
Greenbacks Performance 2
Location: Washington DC
Soliciting words from visitors at a gallery/cafe not far from DC’s World Bank headquarters, to carve into US dollars.
USD$1s purchased from Chungking Mansions and various Hong Kong HSBC branches for the project
[It is illegal to carve RMB in China, and USD in the US, though many artists have done so.]
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