Houben R.T.
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$5 Comercial Bank 1851 by Benjamin West 96,110
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In my recent works I paint images, taken from money, on wallpaper, vinyl, plywood, paper or stucco, materials commonly found in Americanhouseholds. I paint with glitter suggesting a link to miniature Byzantine mosaics, private objects of devotion, which were also a very popular gift exchanged between high-ranking members of the Byzantine priesthood. As an artist, I was trained in ‘classical art,’ so as to fulfill the role of the artist in a totalitarian society: creating propaganda. Power makes itself visible in everyday objects through the imprint of symbolic images. Artists are the ones who create those images. The images I use in my work reveal the way coins, through constantly reminding us of it, legitimize power.
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2.Untitled/Lamoille County Bank 1857
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And it is this relationship to power that accounts for the monumental look of my work. (monument and the Latin (and Bulgarian) for coin, ‘moneta,’ both derive from the same root).
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However, coins, before they became a form of exchange, were used as tokens of participation in a particular community, be it tribal or religious. Lacking intrinsic value, coins are similar to artwork: both depend on a socially contracted sense of worth. In themselves, the materials of which contemporary money and art objects are made are generally worth little - yet, as a society, we agree to give them value. Through the imprint of symbolic images, coins also serve as a communal memory. Thus they promote a sense of security and national participation within each individual. My works are more about this aspect of money, the shared faith in symbolic images, and the participation in a community, rather than about the display of wealth and power. Therefore, although monumental, my work conveys a sense of intimacy in a way similar to the miniature Byzantine mosaics: both open the personal and private to the communal and the political.
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3.Lamoille County Bank
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IMAGE DESCRIPTION : 1. ‘Maine’ glitter and acrylic on mother of pearl 5,5/9 in, 2003. - 2. ‘Delaware’ glitter on wallpaper 18/14 in 2003. - 3. ‘Bare Breast Liberty’, acrylic and oil on wallpaper 8 in/7,5 in 2004. - 4. ‘Connecticut, glitter on wallpaper, 14/18 in, 2003. - 5. ‘Kentucky’, ( US Quarter) glitter on wallpaper 18/14 in 2003. - 6. ‘Chrisie,Hejaz’, glitter on paper 3,5/5 in, 2004.
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