Did you Know - Cash Collages - Ladies and Gentleman There is No Cause for Alarm

 

Title: Ladies and Gentleman There is No Cause for Alarm

Artist: Mark Wagner (b. 1976) Created: 2016 Medium: dollar bill collage on panel Dimensions: 96 x 72 in (244 x 183 cm) Current location: Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York City, New York

The bills just keep coming and coming. Brooklyn based artist Mark Wagner explores modern humanity's obsession with money by shredding one-dollar bills and assembling them into complex collages. Pictured above, Ladies and Gentleman There is No Cause for Alarm parodies the classic scene in King Kong where the behemoth gorilla breaks free of his shackles. 

While this massive, eight-foot-tall collage took nearly 1,000 dollars to create, Wagner typically uses only 15 to 20 one-dollar notes per piece, making his medium deceptively thrifty. He also opts for freshly minted, "crispy" bills when he has the chance, because nobody wants art that smells like a sweaty wallet. 

But still, why mutilate moola when there're plenty of other options? Besides the fact that bills are so durable, Wagner says the taboo of destroying money causes people to pay more attention to his works, when they otherwise might not. 

The artist does admit money clipping didn't come to him naturally, though; it took him years of carving up bills with his X-Acto knife to cast off the feeling of wrongdoing. Well, technically he is doing something wrong under the eyes of the law. But under our eyes, he seems to be doing something right! 

Below:  Abe Lincoln by Mark Wagner;

 below, a video showing the artist's process as he recreates Grant Wood's American Gothic. 

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