Fused glass and street money

Installation: 81 cm X 127 cm X 56,6 cm

Like many South Africans, my primary mode of transport is walking and making use of public transport. Whilst walking to and from destinations I experience the world around me a lot more intimately than if I were just driving a car. Something that became apparent to me, while walking-common in different parts of Port Elizabeth-is money laying on the ground. Sometimes the coins are still in a condition to be used while others are so badly damaged that they just about represent an object that stands for our South African economy.

This absurdity led me to the act of collecting. As I walk, I stop and pick up money on an almost daily basis. My collection of this street money is what informed my art making.

These coins have been preserved in a full fuse glass process. In fusing the coins, different forms of value are added as well as removed. Aesthetic value is attained by these found objects being preserved in glass. The glass process results in a complete loss in economic value which can never be returned to it. In essence, this is an exaggeration of what we do with money as earners and spenders in South Africa. For many people, a great emphasis is placed on the chase for money, yet once attained this money is merely something to get rid of.