Hong Hao

Tokyo, Base Gallery, Art & Money, November - December 2004, illustrated

The number in the present work’s title denotes the aggregate value of all the notes it depicts, compiled without regard to the relative worth of the currencies. The piece grew out of a widely exhibited series entitled “My Things” in which the artist began to scan the material objects of his daily life and digitally edit them into elaborate compositions on black backgrounds (See Lot 47). Some of the currencies represented were purchased at foreign currency markets in Beijing, or at flea markets, or brought home with the artist after a trip abroad. Assembled geometrically, the notes “speak to the urge to put a number on happiness and fortune,” says the artist, a tendency which he also explored in a series of photographs depicting "Mr. Gnoh," his affluent blonde-haired, blue-eyed alterego (See Lot 48). Hong Hao believes in the scanner as the only truly neutral camera, able to record images unfailingly at life size. The photographer as observer drops out, leaving behind a colorful if ultimately chilling compilation of money.