Fiona Hall‘s Work

Research the two examples; 'Tender'(2003-05) and 'Leaf Litter'(1999-2003) to explain how they relate to this concept.

1. First define mercantilism, using material from your ALVC handbook, and explain how it has developed since the Renaissance.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. (2005).  Mercantilism is a economic system of the major trading nations during the 16th to 18th century, based on the premise that national wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and collecting precious metals in return. The period 1500-1800 was one of religious and commercial wars, and large revenues were needed to maintain armies and pay the growing costs of civil government. Mercantilism nations were impressed by the fact that the precious metals, especially gold, were in universal demand as the ready means of obtaining other commodities. 

By the end of the high Renaissance mercantilist policies were giving way to a new economic system, capitalism. People such as Adam Smith were extremely critical of the mercantilist system.

2. Identify the ideas or concepts in Hall's work that relate to Mercantilism? 

Hall use the material such like money and leaf, trying to make the relation between economic and environment. 

Hall's work is not only just relate to the mercantilism by using money, but also make us think about the environment and society. Underpinned by her continuing investigation into the relationship between nature and culture. 

3. For each work describe the shape, form and materials used, and also explain the ideas behind each example.

'Tender' (2003-05) Fiona Hall

Tender “consists of dozens of simulacra of birds’ nests of all shapes and sizes, improbably fashioned from American one-dollar bills, each bearing the official declaration: “This note is legal tender”. The American dollar is the most desired currency in Third World countries, for those desperate for it, like birds scavenging for material to build their nests, the greenback provides shelter. Here, in its ubiquity and availability, the dollar bill is made to assume the form of each exquisitely differentiated  avian habitat, at exactly the moment of modernisation, the advance of capitalism and the spread of deforestation is depriving many birds, animals and indeed people, of their environments.”

 ' Leaf Litter' (1999-2003) Fiona Hall

Leaf Litter is an ongoing series of two hundred gouache paintings of botanically-specific leaves on foreign paper currency. Hall has said of Leaf Litter: “Money doesn’t grow on trees–or does it? Plants have played a crucial role in the history of colonisation and the development of world economies. Many species have been responsible for the rapid growth of European power and wealth over the past five hundred years. Plants, and along with them people, have been shifted across oceans, battles have been waged over them, forests razed. But everything comes at a price, and now we are paying heavily for over-taxing the environment and for cultivating an ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations. Many of the once most plant resource-rich countries are now amongst the poorest on earth. Leaf Litter aligns the distribution of plant species with the distribution of monetary wealth.”

4. In your opinion do the materials communicate the ideas of the work? Please explain your answer. 

Yes. Materials communicate the ideas of the work in different ways. From Hall's work, she uses money as a material to relate the money and nature. Material can always make different effects on the works.

5. Fiona Hall's recent project The Kermadecs focuses on issues around the Pacific ocean. Research this project to summarize the importance of the area and upload an image to your blog for discussion. 

It was an image in reverse, and it reflect that our lives are lived in a world composed largely of water, in which we are all passengers sailing on the model ship marooned inside the bottle, tossed about in the sea of our dreams and wild imaginings.