Multimedia Project | 2024–2025
By working with shells and related materials, the project treats them as both physical objects and historical traces of erased economies. Shells resist standardization: they cannot be stamped, fixed, or fully abstracted. Their circulation carries the memory of touch, labor, and movement across geographies. In this sense, shell money functions as a “ghost economy,” present within global circulation but absent from dominant financial narratives, mirroring modern day crypto cloud as a “ghost economy” The project also draws parallels between shell money and contemporary digital economies, both of which rely on collective belief rather than intrinsic value. However, where shell-based systems were embedded in social bonds and reciprocity, digital economies often operate through speed, disembodiment, and extraction. Through this comparison, the work questions how value is produced, who controls it, and what forms of exchange have been displaced in the construction of modern economic systems.
Inspiration and historical references
Sea shells were used as currency and symbols of wealth and power from around 1200 BCE in China until the 19th century CE in Africa and Asia, making them one of the longest-lasting forms of money in human history. Seashells have historically and anciently acquired their value from their rarity and collective agreement on their value. With the introduction of European money (silver and gold) during European colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries, the value of shells began to decline historically, as huge quantities of them were pumped into the markets, which led to inflation and the gradual loss of their monetary value. However, they remained an important cultural and social symbol.
I see that Sea Shells embodied a poetic negotiation between nature and value during the Great Depression.
Improvised currencies reflected the fragility of economic systems and the human capacity to assign worth to things.
In my practice, I am trying revisit similar intersections between material, exchange, and narrative, exploring how objects transform into vessels of social memory and collective imagination.
