Blood Money Currency Exchange Terminal
Ryan Presley’s Blood Money Currency Exchange Terminal is a participatory installation that reimagines Australian’s national currency as a celebration of Aboriginal history.
This event has now passed.
Exchange Australian Dollars (AUD) for Blood Money Dollars (BMD) in this participatory installation that recreates a currency exchange booth. Ryan Presley’s Blood Money series of watercolour paintings replaces the portraits of prominent figures from Australia’s colonial history on the national currency with leaders, social advocates, warriors and writers from Aboriginal history, such as Fanny Balbuk Yooreel, Dundalli and Pemulwuy. These figures will also be on display in our Level 1 South Gallery.
Each day the artist will set the rate of exchange at the Blood Money Currency Exchange Terminal, and you will be able to convert Australian currency for limited edition $10, $20, $50 and $100 Blood Money Dollar prints.
All proceeds will go to two nominated Alice Springs and Sydney-based Aboriginal youth organisations. See more of Presley's work in Primavera 2018: Young Australian Artists.
About the artist
Born 1987, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Lives and works Brisbane
Marri Ngarr people
Ryan Presley explores the events and ideologies that have shaped Australian society from colonisation to the present day. Using drawing, painting, etching and installation, he considers the representation of authority and power, referencing historical figures and events that offer alternative and resistant readings of colonial history.
Recent exhibitions include Prosperity, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Trademarkings, Frontier Imaginaries Ed No 5, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands; For What It's Worth (Not For Sale), Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah, NSW (all 2018). Presley is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Griffith University.