Cash King
Cash is King II: Money Talks features works of art on banknotes, when, executed en masse, becomes a huge collection of defaced money-art composed of bills and currency from all over the world.
Stop Selling them Your Bombs uses a UK 5 pound note as canvas. The Queen is wearing a burqaa covering her hair and face but revealing her eyes and her crown. The speech bubble coming out of her mouth reads “Cash is King” using Arabic letters. The letters, if read by non-English speaking Arab, do not make sense. They only make sense if you are bi-lingual and thus can decipher the code. A bomb is falling away from a target and many smaller bombs are flying in different directions. The “Bank of England” is transformed to read in Arabic “La ilaha ila Allah” (There is no God but Allah). Music notes are coming out of the bomb.
Killer Queen A singing bomb falls into the Bosra Amphitheatre in Da’raa in South Western Syria illustrated on a 1000 Syrian Lira note issued in 2013. The amphitheater is on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger. The bomb is singing the notes to the song Killer Queen. The note is all red to signal the lives lost and homes burnt. Blood is running down the steps of the amphitheater.
If the UK note is hanging above the Syrian note then continuity of manufacturer of arms and consumer of arms will be made clear in the mind of the viewer. The aim of the artwork is to communicate that war can be stopped if arms are not sold. Countries manufacturing and selling arms are as responsible for the lives lost as those who are using these weapons to kill.
River of Blood: The Norias (water wheels) of Hama are turning in the blooded Orontes river with destruction engulfing the whole city. All the details of the 200 Syrian Lira note are covered in black and a death skull is saying one word: Syria.
500 Syrian Lives: A big fish is eating the whole crop and the words 500 Syrian lives are highlighted twice on the note. While the fights are fed from both sides, financial profit from the war ignores the lives that are lost.
The Saatchi Gallery, London - UK. Cash King II. 4 defaced banknotes. 21 August 2019 to 8 September 2019
