Christopher Simmons
Screenprint on Uncut US Currency
31.5” x 27”
Edition of 5

Hand-pulled screenprint on sheets of uncut US currency. Currency is in 50-subject, one-dollar denomination sheets, printed by the Boston mint and issued by the Bureau of Printing & Engraving. 

Created on “Black Friday" this short edition is the second in a series of investigations into the value of currency as a form of social agreement—an active expression of production overlaid on a passive expression of consumption. By printing over uncut notes, their potential for value as currency is invalidated and instead reassigned to a singular aesthetic purpose. As a result its value becomes intrinsic, based on subjective determinations of taste, beauty, and intellect rather than a liquid coefficient of purchasing power. The subtly visible complexity of the engraving below the essentially featureless black screenprinting engages the methods of production to highlight the distance between both layers of meaning, between which exists a tense, contemplative space.

Note: Sheets may vary in detail from the version shown here but are always genuine currency from the US Bureau of Printing & Engraving. Currency sheets often arrive to me with slightly crimped edges. Ships tubed via UPS.

Signed and numbered in pencil in the lower right-hand corner.