Personal Valuables

I question the notion of "value".
I choose common objects that do not hold financial worth for what they are, but for what they represent. If it wasn’t for what these objects grant or give access to, which is of huge value to their owner, they would be worth very little. I deconstruct these objects by changing the material they are made of. The resulting sculptures are completely deceiving, and only upon close inspection, picking up the keys and the coins, the viewer realises how light they are, and in so doing the symbolic value of these bits seems lost...... if it wasn't that I added a twist: the objective value of the replicas surpasses that of the originals because they are made of gold and silver.

£5 coin

Money does not have an absolute value, but one that is completely dependent on status, class, attitude and condition at one given time.
You are drawn to this shiny coin, through its holes you can see what you are purchasing while on the other side you become aware of your reflected image: a reminder of the value you attribute.

The Royal Mint supported me whilst at the Royal College of Art London to produce these bespoke £5 coins.

MATERIALS: WAX, SILVER, GOLD.
Keys, credit card and coins are sculpted out of wax, but are then coated with gold and silver. Their value is warped.

i.e. If the keys were real, they would be made of brass and would be worth very little (aside from what they grant access to –house property–), but now that they are a sculpture made of gold, they, as an object, are worth a lot more than the original.