sophia meng is an artist and illustrator based in brooklyn, ny.
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This Money Is Fake
inkjet print and gold leaf on counterfeit bills given to artist in a scam, acrylic panels
2024
2024
a couple weeks into 2024, i was scammed. in exchange for a new laptop, "Brian" gave me eighteen fake $50 bills.
ritualistic practices within Chinese culture aim to connect materiality and spirituality, like the burning of "joss paper". it is believed that this money, once burned to ash, is sent to the afterlife for one’s ancestors to spend. i made my counterfeit bills into this type of ceremonial artifact to imbue them with value again, albeit in another realm.
real money is, technically, also fake; the ever-dire circumstances of capital that push people to scam is built on its own house of cards. ancestor veneration rituals are part of a larger understanding that the spirits of the dead influence the fate of the living. there is bleak humor in this situation: the only hope for a better life within the precarity of global capitalism is to place my faith in those who no longer have to live it. my loss in this world can at least be repurposed for my ancestors’ gain in the next — and then, hopefully, reflect back onto me again.
ritualistic practices within Chinese culture aim to connect materiality and spirituality, like the burning of "joss paper". it is believed that this money, once burned to ash, is sent to the afterlife for one’s ancestors to spend. i made my counterfeit bills into this type of ceremonial artifact to imbue them with value again, albeit in another realm.
real money is, technically, also fake; the ever-dire circumstances of capital that push people to scam is built on its own house of cards. ancestor veneration rituals are part of a larger understanding that the spirits of the dead influence the fate of the living. there is bleak humor in this situation: the only hope for a better life within the precarity of global capitalism is to place my faith in those who no longer have to live it. my loss in this world can at least be repurposed for my ancestors’ gain in the next — and then, hopefully, reflect back onto me again.