1001

Playing with the amount or number of 1001

The Gold Standard
A year of rising gold 13.6.22-13.6.23
23 carat gold gilding and shell gold
77 x 63 mm
2024

The historic gold standard (where each dollar was fixed to an equivalent in real gold) was abolished and then, to my mind, money became fictionalised. Freeing money from its attached equivalent constraints in reality sheds its weight and allows it to fly into fiction. Now money is understood in terms of belief and speculation. I work with the 1001 Nights - also a mirror for merchants - generating contemporary visual interpretations of the Arabian Nights. The Nights are also an exercise in faith, belief and speculation (and gossip). Paper money is a promise - a promise to pay the bearer on demand and in some cases on the premise that the bearer has full faith and credit in the government of the United States. Gold is the most sensitive measure of inflation and reflects our understanding of value. Gold rises when we believe in fairytales more and falls when we believe in them less.

I invested £1001 GBP in commodities and futures over a duration of 1001 days (and nights: money never sleeps) working with a professional trader friend. I was conservative; I did not engage in short-selling (selling things I don’t own, which originated during tulipmania in the 1600s in the Dutch Republic). The commodities that existed during the heyday of the Nights include ancient metals speculation (gold, silver, copper), lead, zinc, tin, wheat, oats, rice, milk, coffee, cotton.
This golden graph (gilt in 23 carat gold and painted in shell gold) shows a year of gold rising from 13.6.22-13.6.23.

Gold is finite on earth. (Imagine if there were whole planets made of gold! Then gold injections for arthritis wouldn’t be so costly). Value changes yet inherent value is fixed. We now value flexibility more. What is real value? What is value for money?