euro2aura, 2015; Oil painting, photocopy, pencil drawing, artist book, 17 minute film
Reflecting on Walter Benjamin’s theory of art and mechanical reproduction, the work explores the potential of imbuing a mass-produced object, in this case a 20-euro note, with the aura of a work of art. The resulting images, reproduced in Hanoi from a scanned and emailed 20-euro bill (the original bill was stolen in the mail) sent from Paris, were made by workers in the former French colony for less than the value of the money represented.
The hand-stitched artist book contains reproductions of reproductions of the original printed scan until the image was unable to be recognized. The film documents the entire process.
