Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's 1987 film, Wall Street.

 

During the Winter of 2009, Gemuce arrived in Huntly from Maputo, Mozambique for a three-month residency.

 

The years 2008/2009 provided a backdrop of global financial crises to Gemuce's practice, the reverberations of which are still being felt today. Importantly, the residency also took place during the Christmas advent, a period associated with the pressure of consumption, exchange, spending money and 'being good.' This context provided an opportunity to explore personal debt in the local context while making analogies to the national debt crisis in Africa and our relationship with giving. Questioning the effects the spirit of consumption has on our daily lives, Gemuce confronted our incapacity to manage without money, investigating how those who invented monetary exchange have become slaves to the power of global finance.

 

As an artist that uses media ranging from drawing and painting to installation and video, Gemuce has developed an arts practice with which he explores political and social concerns, especially those with an inherent paradox or dichotomy. Reversing and questioning the logic of societal roles, he has increasingly become drawn to the (ir)rational structure of the global monetary and credit system, and its relationship with various cultures.

 

Money Crunch specifically plays on the ironies that accompany Christmas. The extended run-up to Christmas that dominates the UK high streets witnessed a black Santa Clause and a white Zwarte Piet visiting the institutions and public areas of Huntly where they conducted their own market research, finding out about the public's opinions regarding money, credit and gift giving. Reversing roles and turning North and South upside-down, Gemuce revealed an inherent fragility of western expectations, when broken produces an opening for criticality. Developing his process of critical inquiry and from his research questionnaires, Gemuce created a new bank in the Huntly Square: The Calabash Bank. Abundant in their numbers and functionality in Africa, the Calabash possesses an inherent value through its various applications. Known to be a storage vessel for food and water, a tobacco pipe, a musical instrument and a tourist souvenir, the Calabash represented an object of seemingly infinite potential, compared to the single-dimensioned objects we spend great sums of money on every year, such as iPods and Blu-Ray players. In exchange for a Calabash, Gemuce required his customers to share ideas with him - replacing debt with hope for the future.

 

The event was accompanied by a discussion: Why Are Artists Poor? with visual artist and economist Hans Abbing,

 

Shadow Curator: Iain Irving