Arty Lucre
Expressions Of Recession, the latest work by Frank Buckley, uses €3,000,333 in cash to inspire people to “lighten up” about money-related matters. The kernel of the idea came after two of his friends took their own lives.
Craig Fitzpatrick, 28 Oct 2011
“This recession is worse than the ‘80s,” proffers the artist Frank Buckley with a sad, weary smile. Having grown up in Drimnagh during the ‘60s, promoted and tour managed the likes of A House and Kris Kristofferson, worked in varous guises with the disadvantaged and with drug addicts, as well as operating along the way as a taxi driver and an artist, Buckley has seen enough to know.
“I had the revenue coming after me this year over €6,000,” he says matter-of-factly. “Not even that. They don’t even know what it was over. I’d driven my wife’s car home and they were standing at the door. The sheriff’s bailiff was there saying, ‘We’ll have to take something, Francis’. I said, ‘Don’t take the furniture’, so he took the car keys. The next morning I had to ring up and ask could they give me my wife’s car back. And this was in the middle of me doing Expressions Of Recession. The bailiff came out the back, looking for my motorbike and I said, ‘Did you not see my paintings, are they not worth anything?’ I had all these paintings... there was literally several million quid cash in the shed!”
Pre-shredded cash, but cash all the same, gathered by Buckley for use in an ambitious new art exhibition. In the end, €3,000,333 worth of genuine shredded notes were used over 25 canvases. The aim? To show people that money should not rule our lives.
“To express that feeling of ‘not taking money so seriously’,” Buckley says. “Of course, it’s deadly serious, in a way. We’re in a recession, I’m trying to feed my kids. Whether you’re on the dole, struggling day-to-day, living on the streets… it’s tough.”
How on earth did he get his hands on the millions?
“My friend had used it as confetti for my wedding,” explains Buckley. “I asked him if he could get me some of it. I’d 12 paintings done and I wanted to do more, so the mint gave it to me as a one-off. They don’t really give it out anymore. Shops bring their takings into the bank and there’s someone there to test the texture of the notes. If there’s a certain texture, they won’t reissue them. So they shred them. They look like bales of briquettes. I had four million. I had people coming to me saying, ‘Would you not put it all back together?’ If you could manage it, you’d deserve four million! (laughs)’”
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