The Love Of Money

Dale Copeland
‘The love of money is the root of all evil’
Assemblage of found objects: Bitcoin, dolls' arms, brass shell cases, in wooden nut bowl.
280mm x 100mm
2022

“Often misquoted as "Money is the root of all evil". It's not the stuff, it's our attitude to it.

Here all the gold-splashed arms reach out for the symbol, the BitCoin. And yes, I know that 'real' bitcoins don't exist as objects, they're just numbers. (we call that "real"?) But all money is like that, not just the non-fungible transactions, all of it.

A ten-dollar note used to have written on it "this note is the promise to pay $10". That was when there was enough gold in Fort Knox and the banks so you could actually cash in your notes. Now, the entire economic world depends on us believing that our piece of paper is worth the number. Or that two cowrie shells will buy you a fish. Whatever. It has to be the common belief, the accepted value. But ask anyone who lives in Zimbabwe. Or any country that has suffered enormous inflation.

In spite of the illusory nature of money it is loved and desired and fought over. The bullet casings at the top? ... wars seem often to be started to take over a country's source of oil, or go.”

Dale Copeland describes herself as a mathematician-turned-artist. The one time head of a college maths and physics department and freelance computer programmer, Copeland, at the age of forty-three opted for a new lifestyle devoted to art and motherhood. She is now a 6th Dan black belt in Taekwon-Do and is still training regularly. Dale has often been referred to as the back bone of the Taranaki arts community, she is currently the driving force behind the artist collective called Virtual TART which shows their work online through the Virtual TART site www.tart.co.nz. In 2012 Dale was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts. Dale lives at Puniho with painter Paul Hutchinson.