After becoming an accountant, it’s possible that one day you’ll deal
with quite remarkable amounts of money. When you see how much big
business turns over, the coins in your pocket, and even the cash in your
checking account, may seem like chump change. However, to produce
something truly special, you don’t necessarily need huge stacks on your
side, as these ten artists demonstrate. And while their work is made
entirely out of U.S. currency, it’s the creativity and imagination that
goes into these pieces – sometimes created with as little as a dollar –
that is truly amazing. Read on for ten incredible artworks made from
money.
Money is at the heart of Justine Smith’s most recent work, with the
London, England-based artist exploring the political, societal and
ethical significance of cold, hard cash in prints, collages, and
sculptures like the striking piece pictured above. Smith’s 2005 work
“Absolute Power” is an almost life-sized reproduction of a handgun
created entirely from one-dollar bills, perhaps suggesting that, in
today’s world, having money can give one the same sense of authority and
dominance that one might experience when in possession of a deadly
firearm. It’s taken from Smith’s “Weapons” series, which includes
further gun models made from dollar bills plus the Myanmar kyat, as well
as hand grenades crafted from U.S. dollars, Chinese yuan and Iranian
rials.
This wearable work of art is the brainchild of American sculpture and
installation artist Dave Cole. It uses 1,124 one-dollar bills, which
have been shredded into strips and then knitted by hand into a
full-length evening gown that would be quite the talking point at a gala
or fundraising event. Sadly, the 2006 piece is not for sale, so anyone
wishing to make a similar statement would need to get busy with their
own bills and needles. Cole specializes in mixing handcrafted and
industrial elements. Other impressive and slightly subversive works of
his include a replica of the U.S. flag made from retrieved bullets and
bullet scraps, and baby clothes fabricated from bulletproof materials.
By day, New Yorker Stephen Doyle is the creative director of design
firm Doyle Partners – and the fact that he creates his intricate
sculptural paper artworks in his spare time arguably makes them even
more precious. Sometimes they are the result of commissions. The
structure seen above featured on the cover of the March 2010 edition of Wired
magazine. A series of four other dollar bills – which were shredded and
cut into intriguing new patterns – appeared alongside reviews of books
about the financial crisis in The New York Times. Perhaps most
surprisingly, the designer uses no structural framework in the making of
his artworks, as the paper’s stiffness once folded is more than
sufficient to bear his pieces’ weight.
Honolulu-based Won Park has been described as “the master of
origami,” and considering the fact that this remarkably life-like koi is
made out of a single one-dollar bill, we can see why. Park’s take on
the traditional Japanese art form sees him use currency as the material
for his work, which – due to his incredible skills – can become anything
from a Chinese dragon to a scorpion, or even a model version of Star Wars’
famous Millennium Falcon. If you feel like testing your own
paper-folding knowhow, then you’re in luck: in 2011 Park published an
instructional book that shares the secrets behind his fantastical
creations – like the amazing carp. It also features some sheets of fake
money, just in case you don’t want to crease your own cash.
Artmoney Studio, which created the striking cityscape above, was
founded by Latvian artist Irina Truhanova. She now has a small team to
help produce and promote the studio’s finely detailed works, which, like
the name suggests, use currency as a medium and which themselves change
hands for hundreds of dollars. Truhanova explained the concept to The Telegraph,
saying, “I wanted to create mosaics that personified freedom,
independence, business and capital, and using real U.S. currency seemed
to fit this perfectly.” The Artmoney team initially envisions the
picture through a pencil sketch, then chooses which parts of the bill to
cut out in order to assemble the selected image. Artmoney also offers a
made-to-order collage service – so if you’ve ever dreamed of having
your face on a dollar bill, this could be the next best thing.
The detail on Chad Person’s 2012 monster masterpiece “Kraken” is so
astounding that the fact that it was made entirely out of dollar bills
seems almost unimaginable. That said, the numbers on the legendary sea
creature’s huge tentacles give the game away somewhat. The work is part
of the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based artist’s series “Here There Be
Monsters,” which also features a dragon, whale and bear, amongst others,
painstakingly rendered in pieces of cash. Person invests a great deal
of both time and money into his impressive collages, but given the fact
that they weren’t commissioned by a willing buyer, this may strike some
as odd. However, Person himself has said of his work, “I love the idea
that people outside of the art-making community would consider this
wasteful.”
Donald Trump may be worth a cool $3.2 billion, but we suspect that
the business magnate wouldn’t mind the fact that only a fraction of his
fortune – that is, a comparatively measly $1,400 or so – went into the
portrait of him by Southern California native Sean Diediker. The piece
was created by carefully creasing the one-dollar bills used for its
composition, then placing them in the right spots to make up the
instantly recognizable features of the Celebrity Apprentice
star. Trump is in good company, too, as Diediker’s series of money art
also features the likes of Frank Sinatra, Barack Obama and former U.S.
Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps Trump could
hang this in the Oval Office if he ever succeeds in his rumored 2016 bid
for the White House.
Brooklyn’s Scott Campbell is actually a tattoo artist by trade, and
his use of the art form’s iconography is apparent in his amazing “Pièce
de Résistance.” The cube measures more than two feet square, and inside
lurks a three-dimensional skull. After the viewer gets over their
surprise, they can appreciate the care and attention that has gone into
laser-cutting each facet of the piece, which is created from $11,000s’
worth of dollar bills. Campbell has produced a lot of art from money,
and skulls are more than a bit of a motif for him. In one of his pieces,
a grinning skull appears to burst out of a panel of bills, while
another carved into a similar wall of currency coolly smokes what looks
like a cigar. And for those who like their art a little cutesier,
another of the New Yorker’s works features a smiling teddy bear cut out
of dollar bills.
This unbelievably intricate collage by Mark Wagner is a nod to Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 thriller Jaws,
replicating the terrifying scene depicted on the movie’s theatrical
release poster. The sea monster lurking beneath the waves arguably looks
even more frightening than a great white, though, and we don’t envy the
swimming George Washington one bit. Perhaps due to his presence on the
one-dollar bill, the material with which Wagner works, Washington
features in a lot of the Brooklyn artist’s slyly humorous output, where
he can be seen walking through the garden browsing a newspaper, feasting
on a bit of cash and, believe it or not, standing up against a
dinosaur. In Wagner’s 2013 piece “Manifest Destiny,” multiple copied
faces of the first president of the U.S. even make up a replica map of
the country.
Stacey Lee Webber used pennies to create her quite remarkable set of
tools, in view of the personal histories they hold after being passed
from individual to individual. As the Philadelphia-based artist says
herself, “When that penny is picked up and used in a sculpture, the new
object is layered with rich stories of struggle and triumph.” The saw,
hammer and screwdrivers shown above are all comprised of coins minted
before 1992 and were cut by hand and soldered together to form the
intricate, three-dimensional imitation tools. They are part of Webber’s
“The Craftsmen Series,” which pays tribute to the hardworking
blue-collar folk of the U.S. The artist has also produced a set of tools
made from dimes and quarters, and American flags incorporating pennies,
steel and brass.
10. Justine Smith – Absolute Power
9. Dave Cole – Money Dress
8. Stephen Doyle – Structural Dollar
7. Won Park – Koi
6. Artmoney Studio – Urban Landscape
5. Chad Person – Kraken
4. Sean Diediker – Trump
3. Scott Campbell – Pièce de Résistance
2. Mark Wagner – Duhdunt
1. Stacey Lee Webber – Carpenter’s Tools
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