Currency

2019 | 2000sqft installation | digitally printed vinyl

Brookfield Projects, New York NY | 1 New York Plaza and 1 Jay Street Metrotech

Currency uses the pattern motifs found on bank notes from the 7 nations listed in the Trump Administration’s Travel Ban- Somalia, Libya, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and North Korea- to create an immersive vinyl installation in the commercial center of 1 New York Plaza. A seemingly innocuous graphic design for a shopping mall, the sprawling motifs initially obscure the charged political nature of their origins as they seamlessly merge with the consumerist landscape of the concourse. However the patterns are embedded with QR codes linked to articles surrounding both the history and the human impact of the Travel Ban, including stories of families unable to receive life-saving medical care and couples separated indefinitely. While such international policy is justified by policy-makers as a response to global terrorism, the patterns of the currency act as a pointed reminder of the inextricable link between the US’s economic interests with its foreign affairs, often at the expense of the vulnerable populations that these policies impact. As customers go about their day in a shopping concourse in the heart of New York’s financial district, the implication of their individual economic exchange in relation to the US’s global economic interests may or may not be illuminated- depending on the viewer’s interest to investigate the patterns closer.