Hanna von Goeler

The ongoing series “My Money, My Currency” uses the pre-existing structure of money to explore ethical, political, and aesthetic questions that surround notions of agency and currency.  Currency in this case relates to exchange —of ideas, ethics, culture, etc.  As an artist, my currency is drawing and painting, my mind, ideas and spirit. Money is what is there. Currency is what I’ve added.  Painting on money also gives me some sense of power to determine, rather than be controlled by, money’s function within society. This relates to the concept of agency; it explores the extent to which we have the power to define rather than be defined by the currencies in our culture. If interested, please refer to my website for a sampling of this work (hannavongoeler.com).

Within this overall structure, I have from time to time created sub-categories to look at currency through the lens of a specific topic or perspective. For example I recently worked on a series highlighting women’s perspectives on social justice by looking at currencies or strategies women have used historically in their quest for social justice and economic equality.

For this project, I propose to look at currency as it relates to global interconnectedness: the connections between our economies, the exchange of our currencies, and so forth by painting on a variety of currencies from around the world. I’d like to look at the visual content in these currencies from a visual perspective but also think about the connections between these currencies and the economies, cultures and political structures they circulate in, as well as add my own currency into the mix. At this moment in history, as the global markets have collectively plunged us into a worldwide recession, I’d like to focus on how connected our global currencies are—to make the connection between both our literal economic currencies as well as our other forms of currency.