I Couldn’t Afford Flowers so I Made These Instead

2020

screenprint, bolívares, thread, PVA, typewriter on paper

This book is dedicated to my aunt and uncle who passed away during the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

The bolivar has reached a level of inflation that makes it practically worthless. Due to this inflation food and medicine have been next to impossible to purchase causing people to lose their lives. People have resorted to turning the bills into kindling, drawing paper, or anything that will be actually useful. How do we reinsert value into these bills? What value do they have when people are starving?

This book contextualizes grief within the political circumstances that caused it.

The currency used were the bills my parents had when moving here from Venezuela. The flower itself is made from actual Venezuelan currency. The base, petals, and flowers on lid are screen prints of the currency.

This work is part of the collection at Fisher Library at the University of Toronto.