A solo exhibition at the Old US Mint, now the New Orleans Jazz Museum. This exhibition is housed in the coin room at the Museum. The Old Mint was active from 1839 to 1909 and is the only US Mint to strike coins for both the United States of America, and for a succeeded Louisiana, and the Confederacy.
The concept for the show at the Old Mint is to activate the Coin Room for contemporary art. Generic Art Solutions have embed their work in the Museum’s Coin Room. Showing their artwork side by side with coins minted in this historic facility. With this in mind, the artists have “minted” new coins for this exhibition. These artworks re-activate this dormant facility. The intention of this show is to explore the tropes of wealth and influence, and probe the promise of an American Dream and the gambler’s persistent belief in their luck. The exhibition examines the power structures surrounding money and the trust that we place in those institutions. The on-going World Pandemic had undermined the global economy and plummeted the world into a recession, with this persistent uncertainty, money and finance acts a litmus test to our trust in leadership, governance and economic stability.
Our relationship to money is complex and often volatile. This abstracted system of trade the world over is adrift from the gold standard, often merely a digital token divorced of the soon to be antiquated hard currency, thus demanding ever more blind trust in the legitimacy of said economic system.
Face Value:
The Illusions of Power and Money
