Mark Wagner takes dollars, cuts them up, and makes them into collages that are incredible. He notes
“The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable… the foreign in the familiar.”
Of course, it is still illegal to deface U.S. currency.
18 U.S.C. 333 reads:
Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or
unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill,
draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking
association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System,
with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence
of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Of course, with the dollar plunging in value, Wagner is actually taking something deemed increasingly worthless and making it into something of value — a feat that has escaped both the Bush and Obama Administrations.
For the artist’s website, click here.
For the dollar art, click here.