Alberto Echegaray (Cayman)
Moneyball (US Dollar)
2014

About the Item

THE PROJECT Searching for historical context, I conducted a research inside the Secret Archives of the Vatican, the Museo Real de Sevilla, the Real Casa de Potosi, the Temple of Freemasonry in Washington DC, the European Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve and the US National Archives supported by experts in history and symbolism from Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard University. I choose the best materials available to make the art pieces, including blown glass from Murano, Italy, the most important global currencies and noble metals available in different corners of the planet, such as gold, silver, platinum and steel. All inhabitants of our planet come into contact with the dollar. As the world’s best-known currency and symbol of economic stability, the dollar goes through the hands of beggars, workers, artists, children, students, elders, priests, politicians and businessmen. We work every day towards financial stability, and all of the world’s most impressive innovations have been achieved through the transfer of money. We created the value behind the dollar, and just as we created it, so can we destroy it. MONEY AS ENERGY The value we have given money is abstract, but contains an energetic force similar to kinetic and atomic energy, electricity, and heat. In all forms of energy, balance is the key. Traditional Chinese medicine asserts that insufficient chi in the body results in discomfort, and in modern culture, we experience the inadequacy of money as a similar condition. Lack of financial power often becomes a source of stress, but in reality, we have the choice to manipulate money’s role in our lives. Just as too much concentration of chi leads to an unhealthy body and spirit, infatuation with money and material wealth can destroy lives and families. Money is only energy. How you handle it is up to you, but the key is to decide consciously. THE SPHERE AS A SYMBOL OF THE INFINITE A perfect sphere is a symbol of totality, uniformity, concurrency, and original perfection. It is eternal, and has no beginning and no end. Alain of Lille once said, “God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.” In this sense, the circular shape of the sphere represents the eternal “now” in which we exist, and a concept of perfection that we chase through the accumulation of monetary wealth. SYMBOLISM: The concept of this work began to develop around 2010. The first time it was presented was in 2012. Between 2010 and 2012, the Federal Reserve approved the initial 2 million dollars to carry out the project. What the artwork contains is as follows: it consists of $100 bills. Each bill weighs 1 gram, adding up to a total of precisely 10 kilograms of $100 bills within the sphere. To achieve this, the volume of the sphere was measured, and the necessary materials were carefully selected. We opted for the best materials available, including Murano glass, manufactured in Italy through blowing. For this reason, the sphere has an imperfection at the top of the glass, while the rest of what you see is polished aluminum. At the base, we can appreciate a prophecy in Latin about the world made by Isaac Newton. He worked extensively with symbolism, and as we know, money all around the world is laden with symbolism. From the earliest coins used by the Greeks and Egyptians, through gold and silver coins, and mixed coins due to wars, even copper coins. In the case of the dollar, a fundamental symbol worldwide is the "S" with a vertical bar in the middle. The origin of this symbol is attributed to Hermes, the god of commerce, who held a caduceus in his hand. This same symbol is found mainly in the Catholic Church and represents the spirit nailed to the material world, thus giving it economic value. This symbol was also branded onto the slaves brought to America. We can find this history in the Dominicans, a specific church in Madrid, where this symbol is present throughout the church. It represents slavery and later became part of the symbol of commerce, as mentioned earlier. Later, it was incorporated into the first regional currency in Europe, known as the "thaler" in English. The term "dollar" directly comes from the word "thaler." This currency was the first to gain global recognition, and the same symbol can be found in the two columns of the "real de a ocho," which was the world's first global currency. It was minted in Bolivia and Mexico and was the only currency accepted by the Chinese in trade with the Philippines when the Philippines still belonged to Spain. Over time, the symbolism was transferred to the "real de a ocho" coins in the columns and the papyrus scrolls found on the columns of Charles V. This development led to the creation of the dollar bill and the emergence of banks. Basically, the symbolism associated with the Masons, the "Founding Fathers," most of whom were members of the Scottish Rite, was incorporated into coins and banknotes, including the Eye of Horus, the famous pyramid, and other intriguing inscriptions found on the dollars we know today. Then, in 1900, in the 20th century, the Federal Reserve was created, and money began to circulate in the form of plastic money. The first credit card, Diners Club, was created in New York in 1953, initiating a global revolution in plastic money. This artwork was created in 2012 when contactless credit card systems did not yet exist. These systems have become popular in recent years, and we can observe the interaction of plastic money with digital systems. Lastly, the artwork integrates the symbol of slavery, representing the spirit nailed to the material world through a microchip. Some governments are considering incorporating microchips into our bodies, connected to a system that allows us to manage our digital assets, either on a blockchain network or a centralized computer network, enabling us to use our money through our bodies.

Creator:
Alberto Echegaray (Cayman) (1970, Argentinian)
Creation Year:
2014
Dimensions:
Height: 17.75 in (45.09 cm)Width: 17.75 in (45.09 cm)Depth: 19.75 in (50.17 cm)
Medium:
Stainless Steel,Blown Glass,Paper
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Miami, FL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2735214506032