Glengarry Glen Ross endures mainly as a spectacular display of verbal warfare and alpha-male gamesmanship. There’s a musical quality to it, with a great composer and a great chorus hitting the complicated runs of broken dialogue and solos that weave into profane poetry and nuggets of philosophical wisdom. Perhaps the greatest sign of the movie’s success, owed equally to Mamet’s script and this cast, is that it does a great sales job in itself, convincing us that there’s nobility to men who lie for a living — a bill of goods we’re all too happy to buy. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Sep 29, 2011 -
67 comments
"Ten Thousand Cents" is a digital artwork that creates a representation of a $100 bill. Using a custom drawing tool, thousands of individuals working in isolation from one another painted a tiny part of the bill without knowledge of the overall task.
[more inside]
posted by sveskemus
on Apr 12, 2008 -
35 comments
Stephen Barnwell makes meticulous bills for fictional worlds, such as the
Dream Dollars of a
lost Antarctic colony, complete with symbolism and backstories. He has introduced several new, more politically controversial fictional currencies for less ideal worlds: the
United States of Islam, the
State of War, and the
Empire of America. He is not the only artist who imagines currency, there are the
beautiful notes of
Kamberra and the strange work of
JSG Boggs [prev] who hand-draws almost real bills that
subvert the lines between money and art, occasionally running into issues with the
Secret Service on the way. On the borders between reality and fantasy is the new currency developed by foreign exchange specialists Travelex, the
Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination, introduced to solve some of the problems in money in space, and which
may actually be used by space tourists.
[prev.]
posted by blahblahblah
on Oct 16, 2007 -
18 comments
Art Money is an alternative, worldwide currency in the form of
original works of art. The Bank of International Art Money is an independent organization directed by artists and free from any form of government financing.
posted by fandango_matt
on Oct 15, 2006 -
7 comments
A cool idea, and a fun allegory: Bird and butterfly collages made with old bank notes (two pages, horizontal scrolling). Click the images to view larger versions and see the notes that were used (scroll down).
More here without the note source info.
posted by taz
on May 10, 2005 -
4 comments
You've probably never heard of
him, but as an artist
JSG Boggs has been making "
money" for two decades. Boggs has been the subject of
many articles, a
film, and a
book by Lawrence Welscher. He's bought lots of things with
his art ("Hot dogs, watches, airplane tickets, rent, clothing, jewelry–-anything." (And he's done so in England, Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, the USA, and Italy.) The largest collection of his works belongs to
The Secret Service. [more inside]
posted by dobbs
on Sep 21, 2003 -
17 comments
Paper money in many countries is really beautiful and often employs great use of typography and color. The designs are sometimes used to showcase an indigenous resource, to pay homage to a cultural icon or national leader, or occasionally as a political weapon. Anyone looking for currency scans on the web usually ends up at
Ron Wise's site - thousands of quality, free for the download scans from every country in the world (I have not verified this), including a
1991 500 Afghanis note from Afghanistan, which portrays the national sport of Butskashi (polo played with a goat carcass). Like the proverbial cake that's too pretty to eat, some of this currency seems
almost too beautiful to spend.
There's also some
speculation that as a deterrent to counterfeiting, American currency just might be getting some color.
posted by iconomy
on Apr 29, 2002 -
28 comments
David Greg Harth is not afraid. As part of his ongoing art project in which this New York artist stamps US currency with phrases, he's releasing 'I am not afraid' and 'I am not terrorized'. He needs help circulating the bills.
posted by prolific
on Nov 4, 2001 -
23 comments
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