The price is worth it

Acher’s artwork explores reification and objectification through an installation composed of a video, a neon sign and a bed of fake flowers. An interview with Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, is projected. In this video, she justifies the death of 500,000 Iraqi children under the 1990 American embargo. The video illustrates the blatant objectification of these children.

The fake flowers symbolize the false promises of wars for ideals such as democracy and peace. Made from a petroleum derivative, they represent retribution in exchange for each sacrificed life. Money remains the link of all links. The flowers, justification of the death of the 500,000 Iraqi children, crystallize the phrase The price is worth it and reify the blood of these martyrs into black gold.

The neon sign displays a phrase from Karl Marx’s work: “Political economy is the complete denial of man”. It emphasizes the total negation of humanity by an economy that ontologically can only be political, enriching the philosophical aspect of the artwork and allowing for a deeper reflection on the installation.

Acher’s creation hence invites us to think more holistically about how we objectify each other through money, which is not merely a means of exchange or a neutral measure but rather a dialectic of social alienation.