Concerned with Latin America's countless development failures, the work reflects on the dollarization and its influence on the economic system and its construct. Using an Ecuadorian dollar as graphic material to draw a faux crown Molding around the entire exhibition space, illustrates how currency, like any other ideological system, can wear down its utility and value.
The Ecuadorian peso was renamed as the Sucre on March 22, 1884, after Latin American political leader Antonio José de Sucre, and was then linked to the silver standard. The decline of the international price of silver during the 1890s prompted Ecuador to switch to the gold standard on November 3, 1898. The Sucre became inconvertible shortly after World War I began in 1914 due to international political tension. Despite extensive measures to support Sucre's value, the exchange rate continued to rapidly decline. As a result of the 1998–99 financial crisis, president Jamil Mahuad announced that the US dollar was to be adopted as Ecuador's official currency, although the US dollar already had wide informal use in Ecuador before this decision was made. Today, the Ecuadorian dollar is produced by the United States Mint and circulates in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents identical in size, weight, and value to their U.S. counterparts. So far, dollarization has not remedied Ecuador's economic problems, but neither was having its own national currency. Experts agree that de-dollarizing Ecuador's economy today would trigger market uncertainty and lead the country to even greater economic instability, which would inevitably hurt Ecuador.
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Year: 2015
Medium: Wall drawing using an Ecuadorian 50 cents coin
Dimensions: Variable
Installation at Casa 18 Espacio de Arte, Quito, Ecuador.
