«Numismatics of Violence”—raises the question of acquiring commodity and collectible properties in depictions of brutality. Can the value of violence be measured, and what exactly becomes the object of exchange—the image, the human body, or the very act of its consumption?
By transferring the found image onto a matrix the size of a dollar bill, the artist creates a facsimile of a banknote in which the human body becomes the carrier of value. The work addresses the phenomenon of how violence, like an economic resource, can be reproduced, disseminated, and consumed as a commodity.
Numismatics studies coins and other forms of currency as material objects, bearers of symbols, and historical evidence. Instead of a state symbol or a historical portrait on a commemorative banknote, the image of violence against a human being appears.
Drypoint involves a physical manipulation of the matrix—the scratching becomes an act of violence against the image.
The work confronts two systems of value formation: the conditional worth of a banknote and the value of the etching, which is constituted by the time invested, the technique employed, and the semantic context. The depiction of violence within the artwork fits into this same framework.
Before each print run, the matrix was cleaned with a steel wool sponge, leading to the degradation of the image. This process serves as a metaphor for laundering: with every repetition, the image loses its original form.
