Thomas Gokey's Tution Debt at ArtPrize 2011

This piece will be exhibited at the Women's City Club (254 East Fulton Street) as a part of ArtPrize 2011. You should stop by, I'd love to talk to you.

(This video was filmed while playing on Mark Di Suvero's "Muto Viget" at Calder Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids.)

In "Total Amount of Money Rendered in Exchange for a Masters of Fine Arts Degree to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Pulped into Four Sheets of Paper" I acquired the exact amount of cash ($49,983) that my tuition cost in shredded form from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. I then pulped this into four large sheets of paper. The artwork is the act of selling this paper piecemeal for the amount of money it is made out of. For example, 1 sq in costs $4.22, 1sq ft cost $607.70, etc. I have a full legal contract that everyone sign to purchase a part. For the full duration of ArtPrize I plan to sit next to my art and sell it off in any dimension to viewers. Once I sell the last piece I will have paid for school. The project is about debt, something everyone can relate to. I am interested in the relationship of value to material, especially given the fact that I just spent so much money for a piece of paper (my diploma). This project is also about the coming university bubble.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ArtPrize
• Thomas Gokey
• Gokey
• Art Institute of Chicago
• tuition
• debt
• money
• university
• college
• art