Exciting Times here in the studio! Opening this Friday at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, will be “Money Talks – Art, Society & Power” a major new exhibition and my world map “A Bigger Bang – Black” is one of the works included in the show.
“Money Talks: Art, Society & Power “ explores the complex, tense and often humorous relationships between art, money and society. The exhibition features more than 100 objects from around the world, from coins and banknotes to works of art by an incredible array of artists from Rembrandt to Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, Guerilla Girls, Grayson Perry and Banksy, to the new phenomenon of cryptocurrency and NFTs. The exhibition examines the place of money in our world from different artistic perspectives and illustrates how currency and art come together in design and culture to promote or challenge our views.
“A Bigger Bang -Black” (pictured above) is one of a series of world maps I have made, and the Bigger Bang map became a mini series of limited edition prints. For me, the images and cultural symbols on the banknotes are significant and can give an indication of the history, culture, religion and economy of a given country, and so the idea was that the Money Map could be ‘read’ in more depth than a straightforward political map.The “A Bigger Bang” editions expands these ideas, was produced under the shadow of the economic crisis back in 2007. In this exploded “Map” each Continent has been broken up, every country has become an island, often inverted or rotated, island chains are scattered and the only order is some kind of gravity in an apocalyptic future. Economic alliances are divided and the United Kingdom is no more. Many countries become unidentifiable as this new distorted geography renders the Map, in a geographical sense, meaningless. “A Bigger Bang” is a visual metaphor of the near disintegration of the financial systems, the ensuing chaos and questions the nature and morality of our financial belief systems and the pursuit of wealth and power. The map is is featured in the accompaniying publication Money Talks – Art, Society & Power Edited by Shailendra Bhandare ISBN 978191080762
You can find the “A Bigger Bang “ edition prints in my shop , or email me info@justinesmith.net for more details.
If you have never visited, the Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1638 was the first public museum in Great Britain. Its’ world-famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art and tell stories about humanity and its cultures.
The Ashmolean Museum. Open 10 5pm daily.
Beaumont Street
Oxford
OX1 2PH
Oxford
OX1 2PH