MESCHAC GABA, Untitled, 1997
1,2 x 5,9 x 3,9 cm
22 safety pins with banknote particles, plastic box
signed on lid
edition unknown
published by the artist
Collection K. van Gelder, Amsterdam
inv.MGab 000-pr

In 1997 various items made out of banknotes were offered at one of the annual Open Ateliers of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. This transparent box produced in a small edition was offered for sale in the studio of Meschac Gaba. Gold coloured safety pins are stuck into Benin banknote particles in the shape of a tiny circle.

“No matter how determined Gaba’s refusal to speak about colonialism, the art system still tends to categorize his art within that framework. As early as 2001, he made a crystal clear opening statement in the ‘Library of the Museum’: “I use money, because I refuse to use the word colonialism.” The valuation system of money is continuously challenged by this artist. Before his Rijksakademie residency in 1997 and 1998, money as a physical object already was present in his assemblages. Later he turned devaluated banknotes of the Central Bank of the States of West Africa into confetti. The confetti was glued on all kinds of everyday objects. African devaluated coins glued to a simple ring, became desirable jewelry. Banknotes were transformed, by replacing the faces of the usual presidents by the artist’s, his fellows’, Picasso’s, or else his hair sculptures ‘Tresses’, and called them ‘Artist with American (or African) inspiration’. He also mounted the confetti on safety pins as a service in return for people becoming sponsors of his Museum of Contemporary African Art.” Daphne Pappers, 4 April 2014 in Africanah.org