NMNT Vault
天痴金庫

NMNT Vault
2022
Installation with silk screen printing on canvas, luminous light, and counterfeit banknote workshop 
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Para Site for ‘Minding the G(r)a(s)p’ exhibition

天痴金庫
2022
裝置藝術、絲網印刷布本、發光二極管燈、偽鈔工場
尺寸可變
受 Para Site 藝術空間委託為「擱角覺」展覽製作

From ‘Minding the G(r)a(s)p’ catalogue P.43-44
The thousand-dollar note reference being used in this work was issued in 1977, the year I was born. The ‘Golden Cow’ is filled with British iconography including the British royal coat of arms and a golden lion on the reverse side. What struck me the most with the embroidered one-dollar coins were the Queen’s profile and the crowned lion. This British iconography could be found on the old thousand-dollar notes. We used to be proud of them. When they disappeared overnight I was hit with melancholy, as they symbolised the past for a generation of Hong Kong people. As for polka dots, they come from the British polka dot fabrics I saw during my residency in England. Why is it British? I cannot say for sure how, but it it different from the polka dots I have seen in Hong Kong. I find it interesting that such generic patterns can take on a local flavour, which means I can make a polka dot cloth with Hong Kong attributes. This is the origin of the polka dots in my work. I tried adding eyes to the dots, turning them into a modified version of the Japanese flag and one-dollar coins, attempting to add emotional elements to them. Now that there is the opportunity, why not add polka dots to banknotes!

節錄自 「擱角覺」場刊 P.56-57：
其實今次複製的一千元紙幣是我出生的年份1977年發行，富有英國色彩的「金牛」，有英國皇室標誌和一隻大金獅在背面。之前繡的壹元硬幣銀最吸引我的英女皇頭像和戴皇冠的獅子，這種富有英國色彩的圖像在以前的「金牛」也能找到，是我們曾引以為傲的東西。突然間消失了當年我也很傷感，這些都是代表一代香港人過去的象徵吧！

至於波點圖案，沿於在英國駐留其間看到英式的波點布，為甚麼是英式呢？我也說不清，總之就跟香港看見的波點布圖案很不一樣，發現原來這種普遍的圖案也可以有當地的特色，那麼我也可以製作擁有香港特色的波點布，這就是波點創作的原點。我試過波點上加眼睛、把它化成太陽旗和變成一元硬幣，嘗試在波點上加入情感的東西，借此機會當然也做一做波點圖案的鈔票吧！

Artist statement

The original name of NMNT is No money no talk 天才與白痴. The name comes from a Hong Kong popular song by Sam Hui in the 1970s. It is a story about the grassroots seeking money. In an era when Hong Kong cannot recognize its own core values, it best represents the spirit of Hong Kong. Because we were raised this way. To win the Mark Six lottery, counting banknotes in a bank vault, and a rich man being kidnapped for 10 million… There are countless other scenes that can be found in Hong Kong movies. So, I was extremely eager to recreate the scene of printing counterfeit money, which often appears in the plot of the movie, too.

The works in the cash series began with the installation work No Money No Talk treasury exhibited at Para Site in 2023. I hid a banknote making workshop in the vault to make banknotes using silk screen printing and ironing methods. The original shape of the banknote came from the one thousand dollar banknote issued before the handover of Hong Kong because it contained colonial elements. A royal sign of the times. I embroidered the image of the banknote, and then made the embroidered pattern into a silk screen for printing. I added polka dot patterns to the printing to create my own style of banknote.

Counterfeit banknotes often appeared in the 1990s, and one thousand dollar banknotes were often banned. I couldn’t find it in the city, so I imagined the size, a little larger than the real size. It will only be printed in the exhibition hall during the exhibition and will not be printed again. We printed a total of 1,200 copies.

About Exhibition
http://www.para-site.art/exhibitions/minding-the-grasp/

Interview
https://www.obscura-magazine.com/all/columns/slow-stitch/eastman-cheng/