SHARING AND
CARING is based on my
artwork: LOW BUDGET. LOW BUDGET is a serie of artwork which I started in 1997.
The Story
In 1986 in NYC as I
was a young DAAD scholar. Like many young artists I was struggling to make end
meet. One day short before my rent was due, I found a few coins in my pocket.
it was only money I had left at that time. I asked myself - should I cry or should I smile? I managed to
pay the rent by painting apartment and offices. In 1997 I was invited to do a
solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Kiel in North of Germany. The museum had quite
low budget and I had over 1,000 square meter to fill with my works. It brought
back the memory of 1986 when I was trying to find way to pay my bills in 2
weeks. I dedicated a big exhibition room for a new work called LOW BUDGET- an
installation with coins and painted smiley and crying faces on them. All the
four walls were cover with 35,000 coins in equal amount of 3,000 German Marks.
LOW BUDGET was again realized at Konsthallen Goteborg in 1998 with Swedish
coins.
During my time living
in Tokyo in 2008 I developed a concept SHARING & CARING to raise the
awareness of global social issues – HUNGER, POVERTY, EDUCATION and ABANDON-
combining art, society and public together. Living in a rich city such Tokyo
made me aware of the reality and social issues specially big social gap between
those who have and those who don't have. My idea is to use art and visual
element to make these social gap smaller by sharing and caring.
The main purpose of SHARING AND
CARING concept is to be able to adapt to different social and cultures
environment
Main body of
activities of SHARING AND CARING are to create artworks and installations based
on LOW BUDGET using the coins. The
artworks are to be created together with people who in need, volunteers and I.
Doing thing together brings motivation and communication. For some people these
can mean so much. The works will be giving back to the society by letting the
needy people letting them take the coins home.
Most important
message of SHARING AND CARING is first to share then to care.
2015 Jårg and Prangtip Geismar
