Klemens Gasser “One Dollars”, 2012
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At the beginning of the afternoon
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The artist, Klemens Gasser
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The stack after 1 hour
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The stack 3 hours later (thank you Mary Garis)
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Press Release:
“One Dollars”
“One Dollars” is a piece by Klemens Gasser my father. It is a stack of one dollar bills in the middle of a one square foot open space in the wall. There is a sign above the stack of bills that says take one, people are allowed to take a dollar bill at one point the stack is gone and then resupplied. The piece lives, dies, disappears, and leaves a space of emptiness, just like human existence. When you die all there is in your place are stories, memories, and emptiness. When the stack of money is gone all that is left for other people is your story and memory of it being there, until the cycle is restarted. The sign above the bills says take one. One means something very different from a person to the next. The first person could take just one bill in total and the next could take 1 repetitively until they have the whole stack. It is not just one person’s opinion; it is their temptation that controls the amount of bills they take. Money has a control over people that makes them think and act differently than as they usually would. This art brings you to the question “Can art change the world?” Can art make the world better or worse? Art has a privilege to change the world, to make you think, to make you feel. Another thought that should come to mind when seeing this art is about the economic systems, not just of the U.S., but also of the world. You should think about capitalism and communism. Not all people get an equal chance to live. Communism has failed in the past. Could it ever work could everyone ever be equal and unselfish? For example if I asked you “If you could be born again, what century would you be born in?” You might respond “I want to live in this century.” Then you were reborn in this century but not in America, in Africa you might die at three weeks old and never get to live a fulfilling life. Where was your chance to live, where was your equality? This brings me to the statement “ART CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.”
By Eliesabeth Gasser
Engineer's Office Gallery 