Xu Qu

In the 'Currency Wars' series, Xu Qu uses different watermarks of banknotes from across the world to create colourful abstract compositions. The resulting artwork is therefore functioning both as a cultural and financial vehicle, reflecting how the artwork often becomes a commodity. With this huge body of work, the artist suggests a monetary system that is out of control and raises questions specific to the idea of power in our contemporary world, and how far its continuous mutation can go. With stakes of a simultaneously oversized, abstract, and absurd nature, this ongoing series talks about the global economy war with currencies from around the globe and how emerging countries have reversed the value of their currency and have changed the global face of the economy. Some may disappear while others reappear with importance and force.