Exhibitions

SYSTEMS OF VALUE

Student Union Gallery / 1502 Cumberland Ave. September 27, 2019 - October 18, 2019

Jason Brown, Jay Fox, Devin Goebel, Adriane Herman, Yoonmi Nam, Beauvais Lyons, Emmett Merrill, Dana Potter, Jody Servon 

“IN GOD WE TRUST” proclaims the paper bill in your pocket. This piece of paper is not an individual, it is apart of the largest printed edition in the world. Dollar bills, or banknotes are just that, printed pieces of paper. They are worth something because we have all agreed on its value. What would happen if we all agreed on something else?

Museums hold objects on pedestals because they have provenance.
Money is worth something because we all simultaneously agree that it is.
Immigrants are not from here because of lines that we have drawn.
The truth is that value exists solely as stories that we tell ourselves, or as a story that someone else has told us.

SYSTEMS OF VALUE is an exhibition of socialized trust. This show of artworks explores the power of visual rhetoric in shaping culture. Sometimes we have been telling ourselves these stories for so long that we forget that they are a part of a game that we are willing to play.