A Fist Full of Air (2012) is an exhibition examining the symbolic distinction between currency and money.
The installation includes framed receipts from currency exchange kiosks, 35mm photographs taken with a disposable camera,
correspondence between Moreno and the United States Treasury Department, and a floor sculpture composed of 160 pounds of shredded U.S.
banknotes obtained from the Treasury. The work asks how value is produced, circulated, and dissolved within the structures of exchange and labor.
In 2011, Moreno visited several currency exchange kiosks in San Diego and began exchanging fixed amounts of money, $25 in equivalent denominations of dollars,
euros, pounds, and pesos, back and forth between currencies. For example, 25 euros were exchanged into dollars and then immediately exchanged back into euros,
repeating the process until the value approached zero. The cycle could never reach zero because kiosks cannot process an exchange once the value disappears.
Each step produced a printed receipt documenting the diminishing value. These receipts were framed, transforming a transactional byproduct into a material
record of value gradually eroding through repetition. The exchanges were also documented using a disposable 35mm camera, pairing the receipts with images that
record the performance through an intentionally modest and outdated medium.
The installation also includes a floor sculpture made from 160 pounds of shredded banknotes along with the written correspondence between Moreno and the U.S.
Treasury requesting the material. The currency was destroyed by SEM Data Destruction Products and Services, a company contracted by federal agencies including
the CIA, FBI, and Department of Defense to meet NSA standards for document destruction. As SEM's Mike Paciello noted, "The Federal Reserve doesn't destroy money.
They destroy banknotes. Don't ever call it money." The distinction between banknotes and money exposes the symbolic dimension of value: the physical material remains
paper even as its economic function disappears.
The shredded currency is partially concealed in heavy-duty trash bags placed atop the sculpture. Removed from circulation, the material no longer holds exchange
value, yet its visual identity continues to evoke the authority of money. The quantity of shredded notes, 160 pounds, roughly Moreno's body weight, links the mass of
the material to the body itself, complicating the relationship between labor, value, and symbolic exchange.
"Time is everything, man is nothing; he is at the most the incarnation of time. Quality no longer matters. Quantity alone decides everything; hour for hour, day
for day…" — George Lukács
More Info:
Date: May 14th, 2012, San Diego, CA
Medium: Installation | Performance | Archive | Sculpture | Performative |
35mm photographs from a disposable camera- 5in" x 7in", exchange receipts framed, 36" x 48", written correspondance between US Treasury and artist , 2 framed 8" x 10" letters, 160lbs of shredded currency from the U.S. Treasury and extra heavy duty galloon trash bags, 36" x 48in x 144".
