HOW much would you pay for 200 $100 notes? It sounds like a trick question but Currency, a work by Sydney conceptual artist Denis Beaubois that goes under the hammer at Deutscher and Hackett this month, is just that - 200 uncirculated $100 notes.
The auction estimate is $15,000 to $20,000. The lower amount would mean some lucky collector could make a profit from the work before even taking it home.
But it's equally possible that the deliberately provocative ''sculpture'' could fetch a higher price than its economic worth.
Beaubois, a performance and video artist for more than 20 years, says he is interested in exploring currency ''as an architecture of possibility''.
''When you look at this [work] it plays on different aspects of desire - it can be an insult to you, it can be thought … for someone it may mean half a year's rent, for another person it might mean medical treatment, for another, a kick-arse holiday,'' he says. ''We'll see if placing it within an art context will elevate the value or degrade it.''
The fact that the cash came from an Australia Council for the Arts grant adds further controversy.
''Some might see it as a comment on the funding system, while someone else might see it only as a quick way of making some money,'' Beaubois says. ''Within the realm of an artwork, people might get something that contains all of these ideas; all of the good and all of the bad are in there.''
Currency will be auctioned in Melbourne on August 31.
The auction estimate is $15,000 to $20,000. The lower amount would mean some lucky collector could make a profit from the work before even taking it home.
But it's equally possible that the deliberately provocative ''sculpture'' could fetch a higher price than its economic worth.
Beaubois, a performance and video artist for more than 20 years, says he is interested in exploring currency ''as an architecture of possibility''.
''When you look at this [work] it plays on different aspects of desire - it can be an insult to you, it can be thought … for someone it may mean half a year's rent, for another person it might mean medical treatment, for another, a kick-arse holiday,'' he says. ''We'll see if placing it within an art context will elevate the value or degrade it.''
The fact that the cash came from an Australia Council for the Arts grant adds further controversy.
''Some might see it as a comment on the funding system, while someone else might see it only as a quick way of making some money,'' Beaubois says. ''Within the realm of an artwork, people might get something that contains all of these ideas; all of the good and all of the bad are in there.''
Currency will be auctioned in Melbourne on August 31.
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