Money Actions (Free Money)

Money Actions is a series of acts in which I used the social dimensions of money as the basis of an interactional and interventionist art practice. 

I gave away money in streets, stores, galleries, talks, dinners, cafés, sometimes anonymously, sometimes in groups or person to person—often to people who give it away in turn. Because money is caged in rules, simply acting outside these rules opens up new ranges of social action and interaction. 

The money served as a provocation for thought, conversation, feeling. In my experience, people are more reluctant to receive than to give; it’s awkward for people to be put in that situation, and I lingered there. From either side of the equation emotions are brought into play—greed, anxiety, stinginess, as well as excitement, generosity, pleasure. People told me stories of loans gone bad, purses stolen in bars, handouts to people on the street, hunting for nuggets of gold in the Yukon, friends in trouble. For me, the artwork happened inside the other person as they experienced the situation—as they thought about, gave away or spent the money.