8th Havana Biennale, Cuba • Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway

Livestock, a collaboration between painter Arlene Amaler-Raviv and photographer Dale Yudelman was created in 2003 for the Eighth Havana Bienniel in Cuba.

The original installation of fourteen panels on cloth, each measuring 2x1m, were suspended from an intricate aluminium wire system. The series of works recollects the image of a row of flags outside an international symposium venue. In this case it is the New York Stock Exchange.

Each Southern African currency’s intricate design and patterning serves as a background for the painted mark. The original notes, worn and torn, have passed through many hands, giving feedback of the history, memories and human lives. Although the works combine banknotes with painted and printed images that relate to each specific country they also illustrate on a broader level that cattle were central to traditional Africa – from ceremonies to a measure of wealth and status.

Through this installation of suspended images, a walkway is created for people to interact with and touch the notes that sway gently on their own axis. The fragility and weightlessness of these notes are contrasted – and paradoxically linked – with the massive electronic wiring system of the New York Stock Exchange. The aerial view of this marketplace with its live wires is connected to the bloodline of livestock in the African homeland.

Now in the Standard Bank Collection.