Some people would spend $100,000 on a new car or a down payment on a home. Others would convert it to $1 bills and use them to completely cover the walls of a room. Those latter people are artists. German artist Hans-Peter Feldman won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2010 and decided he’d like to do something a bit different with his $100,000 in prize money. Feldman managed to have the money converted to circulated bills, ones which have already been used as currency rather than crisp, freshly-minted dollars.
Like any great artist, Feldman left the grunt work of the project to his assistants, whom he tasked with using metal pins to attach the money to the walls of the installation room at the Guggenheim. The notes overlap partially, making them really blanket the walls, as well as two columns, and it’s striking to see just how much 100,000 dollar bills really is.
It can be seen as amusing how the artist used his prize money from previous works of art as his next art exhibit, and there are certainly worse ways to put so much money to use. As this exhibit is temporary, though, the money will eventually find its way back into the system. While this doesn’t appear to have been related to the statement the artist is making with this work, it can be easy to relate this to the debt issues in the United States, as well as in other countries.
There have been numerous infographics which try and relate enormous numbers such as trillions into terms which the average person can comprehend. They’re always mind-boggling, and the same could be considered here; $1 trillion would be the equivalent of 10 million rooms just like this, plastered with single $1 bills. For even more cool art centered around money, check out these amazing Laser Cut Dollar Bills and these Edits of U.S. Currency.
