Paper Money, 2013

Paper Money! (6 editions of 3 suites of each two prints),

each print: 47" x 31" / 120cm x 80cm 

Viscosity printed Plexiglas engraving on French linen/cotton paper;

Printed by Flatbed Press, Austin, TX. 

Each print was created using three separate plates, two for the coin and one for
the background. Because of the color techniques used they are essentially monoprintswith metallic inks. The background is printed and the technique used is
such that the coin itself is de-bossed, it comes forward out of the paper.

Please click on images below for expanded view / slide show.

Images courtesy Flatbed Press.

   Value exchange. Art as money, money as art. Art is like money in that there is an exchange that takes place. The abstract invention of money was a seminal event in human history and it has many parallels with value systems in art.

   All artifacts are intellect manifested in material, ideas given form.

   Aesthetics and rarity are the obvious similarities between coins and art. I have chosen as a source what I find to be the most beautiful ancient or early coins, not for their rarity, which signifies their financial value, but for their aesthetic value.

    Both, art and coinage value relies on specific cultural context. I am interested in the images used on coins as they are carriers of information and within this perceived information I have paired up this series of coins: for instance the three grains of wheat on the Mesopotamian coin is paired with the Bee coin. It is a metaphor symbolizing exchange or cross-pollination, as coinage allows one culture to exchange with another, services, goods or ideas. The wheat grown on the Mesopotamian flood plain was sent to the windy Greek islands for grinding in the windmills. Coinage facilitated this exchange of services, goods and ideas, sustaining all concerned.

This is what is symbolized in the images embossed on the coins.
   Art works in this way as well. Art like Money is in service to the flow of ideas. Energy is the control of currencies and this enables ideas to flow within any given culture and also cross-culturally. The idea of art and the idea of money have much in common and where they meet, there is a power exchange. Alexander could not have moved his armies from Greece to Asia without coinage to pay them. His conquest
relied on the invention of money.

   The Athenian owl coin paired with the down-bull coin for me represents the current European financial crisis. The ancient coin image was brought back into use on the Greek version of the Euro. The complex meaning embedded in this series of prints, sourced from early coins facilitates the exchange of ideas over time, looking back in order to move forward. 

                                                                                            John Greer, 2012

Paper Money - printing in progress at Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas - December 2012

Viscosity printed Plexiglas engraving on French linen/cotton paper

each print: 47" x 31"

Some juicy images of John's new series of Paper Money! There will be a series of 6 motives, each in an edition of 6 (+proofs for artist, Master Printer and Flatbed Press). Each print consists of three plates with different techniques layered over each other. The inks are metallic and you can't see the true metallic sheen yet on these photos, it will take a week of drying before they develop the full strength. 
The background is printed in a "Greer Slate" that has a very dense and deep surface - they become almost like flags. The coins are embossed - de-bossed that is, they rise out of the paper. These prints are a continuation of John's exploration of value systems. Specific coins will be paired in the final presentation.