My Coins

 Coins

My idea

For my own coins, I wanted to focus on showing how the money itself was made and how each trade directly correlated to the collected wealth and how money is generated by and preserves privilege and by extension also exploitation. The reality of the transactional nature of human relations divides most societies into winners and losers and monetary wealth and exchange lies at the heart of this. I wanted to reflect on this toxic relationship by having a visual representations of the source of the money on each coin, instead of generic designs that could mean anything. This meant I could reference some of the most common money-making trades in the Nottinghamshire area and have them become more specific to the area of Newstead Abbey.

My designs   

                                     

For my designs, I tried to show as many different common sources of income as I could, but narrowed them down to four final designs. These were lace, tea, sugar and candlesticks. The lace, tea and sugar designs directly relate to the corresponding trades which were huge in the area and have affected modern Nottinghamshire greatly. The lace industry was most prevalent in Nottingham between 1799 and 1832 (which was around the time that Byron sold the Abbey to Thomas Wildman), and the candlesticks are very specific to Nottingham as well. 

Displayed in Nottingham Castle there are four silver candlesticks depicting African slaves wearing loincloths and carrying candleholders above their heads. No one knows who commissioned the candlesticks, although they are believed to have had links to slavery, but they were made in 1757-1758 by the silversmith William Cripps. They were donated to Nottingham Castle Museum in 1968 where they still are today. I wanted to include these in the designs as I believe the existence of these candlesticks shows how slaves were treated as a 'novelty' during this time. The trading history of England was around the time of the transatlantic slave trade which continued up until the 1850s. The wealth of the British Empire was enhanced by the slave trade and it's argued that all of the region benefitted from the income either directly or indirectly. 

All of my designs depicted different trades, yet each of them have links to the slave industry. In the lace industry, the cotton used was picked by slaves in the Caribbean and South America. Indians were the first to develop a process to produce sugar crystals by squeezing juice out of the sweet grass that had been grown in Asia for thousands of years but it was with the establishment of huge sugar cane plantations in America and the Caribbean that sugar was mass produced, using slave labour. Just like sugar, growing tea is very labour intensive and so slaves were used to create a huge production chain.

In 1833, slavery was banned in the British Empire and so the tea companies (as well as others) used free men and women who signed contracts which bound them to work for a certain period, but it wasn't much better. These people worked in appalling conditions, and because of their contracts, would be forced to work until they physically couldn't do so anymore, at which time they would be in violation of their contracts and be left to fend for themselves without the 'aid' of the company. Many ended up homeless and penniless, forced back into the same contracts just to survive.

Producing the Coins

Once I had decided on my four designs, I re-made them in photoshop so that I'd have a copy to send to the laser-cutter. I chose to use the laser-cutter as I wanted a large amount of the coins to use at the end, and place them in such a way that it would show money spilling over to show the extent of wealth that was prevalent at the time. I wanted to be able to have enough so I needed a way to easily mass produce the coins. 

I then had to decide the material that the coins were made of. Due to my use of the laser-cutter, it narrowed down my choice to wood or acrylic, I chose wood as it was a natural material, and it's timeless (as long as we don't chop down all the trees that is). I then chose the type of wood, I chose normal plywood (as opposed to birch) as it was slightly darker and very lightweight. This darkness would give the coins a more aged appearance, and the weight would simply make it easier to transport the coins, it served no aesthetic purpose.

I then decided to change the size of the coins to two different sizes, and not all uniform. This was to make them look more like 'real' money in which all coins are slightly different shapes and sizes. The different sizes would also make the finished pile of coins more interesting to look at as opposed to a pile of identically uniformed shapes. I made the two 'simpler' designs (sugar and tea) smaller as the size wouldn't affect the amount of detail that would be easily readable on the coin, and the two more complicated designs (lace and candlesticks) I kept the original size so that all the detail would be visible. The sugar and tea coins were 3cm and the lace and candlestick coins were 4cm. This created a nice differentiation between the coins and made them more visually pleasing when in a group.

There was also the question of the wattage of the laser and what this would create. A lower wattage would result in a lighter, shallower engraving, and a higher wattage would result in deeper engraving. There's also a compromise in the engraving depth and the details. Due to the small size of the coins and the detail I wanted to include, I needed to use a wattage that would show the detail clearly, but not too deep where it would blur the small details. I used practice pieces to look into this an experimented with 10, 12.5 and 15 watts. I ended up choosing the middle, 12.5 watts as it was deep enough to clearly show the design and you could feel the indents, just like real coins, but not too deep to blur the lines, especially on the lace design. 

Displaying the Coins

In total, I made 50 coins of each design, 200 coins in total. I felt this was a good number as it would be enough to create the desired effect of a large pile of coins spilling over in their containers. I then decided to display the coins in two pieces I found at local charity shops. I was looking for silver pieces that looked aged, as if they had been used for this purpose for a while. I originally bought three containers, but the third looked too 'new'. It wasn't as 'tarnished' as the others and looked too modern and mass produced for it's purpose. 

I first filled the bottom of the pot with paper to leave a small space at the top to cover with coins. This meant I didn't have to use the coins to fill the space, for them not to be seen by the audience. I then piled the coins onto the tray so that they spilled over the edge and onto the surface underneath, this represented the disproportionate distribution of wealth that was so prevalent at the time and still is to some extent. 

I then experimented with different surfaces, such as a plain white background, mirrored tiles and red and purple coloured fabric. I preferred the effect of the red fabric the most, as it helped portray the feeling of wealth because of the vibrancy and shiny, almost silk-like fabric. It gave a sense of luxury which I loved, and the ripples and folds in the fabric helped me show the coins being thrown down haphazardly as if someone was just chucking their excess and unneeded money out of their pockets.

                                     

Placement

Once I had come up with a finished piece, it was then time to place it into the Newstead Abbey Gallery. I realised I needed an easier way to transport the arrangement, as before, whenever I would move it, I had to carry the containers and replace the coins individually which became difficult when thinking about moving it around a gallery in limited time. I returned to the charity shops and bought a plain silver tray which I would place everything on. This didn't need to be particularly pretty or fit the theme, as the fabric could cover it entirely, it was purely functional.

Once I had placed the fabric, containers and coins onto the tray, we then looked at two different areas in the gallery to place it. The first was in the corridors in a large mirrored cabinet alongside busts of Lord Byron, and the second was in the medieval cloisters. I decided on the former, as alongside Byron's busts he had commissioned of himself, it helped portray the idea of an overflow of wealth and its misuse. Byron was famously bad at managing his finances, spending money of material things such as an ornamental lake on which he staged mock naval battles, and his huge collection of unusual pets, notoriously a bear he bought at Stourbridge Fair in the early 1800s. I thought that placing the piece here would perfectly reflect these aspects of his life and enhance my intention of showing the wealth he had, yet could not maintain.

Once the piece had been placed in the gallery, I was able to go back twice and see how the outcome of our ideas had come together to form an exhibition. Looking around the gallery, it became apparent that the pieces worked very well in the context of the space, and in my case, I feel this actively enhanced my work. It was unintentional, but because of the dark lighting in the room (to help the preservation of the paintings already there), it meant people had to look closely to see the detail in the coins as they peered into the cabinet. Because I had made the coins out of wood, they were more likely to draw someone's attention, as they were obviously not real coins compared to those that can be seen in other rooms. This then made visitors look closer and see the images engraved onto the coins, and then hopefully read the adjacent description and realise my intended message in regards to the 'blood money' origins of the wealth that built and maintained Newstead Abbey. I feel like had there been more light and more visibility, they might not have done this as they would have glanced over, seen some coins and turned away with out being aware of the message they were telling. Thus the coins in that particular corridor were able to be subversive in the space and blend into their surroundings. 

When visiting the gallery, it gave me a great sense of pride. I was able to walk into a public space, and see my work surrounded by other great artists and artifacts. Whilst walking around, I was able to speak to the gallery staff and talk about my art and how and why I made it. Each person greeted me and was excited to speak to (in their words,) one of the 'artists' which gave me a sense of community in the art world. This helped me realise what an amazing experience this was, and introduced me to the world of art curating. I was able to see a gallery, and put in my own intervention, even moving items in the cabinet to make space for my piece. It helped me understand how artists work with art curators and sometimes act as curators themselves to explore different ideas, and design my work to fit into different spaces.