Adornment

James Stephen George Boggs, artist

1955–2017

Adornment, 1990

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: lapis; silver; brass

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 25.5 x 22 cm maximum
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 10 1/16 x 8 11/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 24 1/4 x 20 1/4 x 1 3/4 in
Weight (Weight): 7 lbs

Credit line: Gift of Ms. Carolyn Connerat

Accession number: 1996.0187.a

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
"Printed Art and Social Radicalism," Jun-2002, Stephen Goddard
As critic Lawrence Weschler noted, “J.S.G. Boggs still makes money the old-fashioned way - he draws it.” Boggs’s performance pieces challenge the role of official currency by substituting his own laboriously hand-drawn and photocopied bills for authentic ones. Boggs’s works also underscore the role of art as commodity when he barters for goods with his hand-drawn bills. Boggs has been arrested for counterfeiting in England and in Australia, as well as investigated in the United States by the Secret Service - which could be taken as evidence of the effectiveness of his artistic strategy.
Adornment is a full documentation of one such transaction. Boggs purchased a $400 necklace with a photocopy of one of his hand-drawn $500 bills. He received $100 change in authentic currency.