An installation made from paper currency, maps, travel tickets and £2,000 of (borrowed) copper coins, concerned with issues of migration, borders, trade, mapping and material culture.

Trade Winds developed out of Sail Away initially shown in TATE Modern's Turbine Hall (2013) as part of the Hyperlink Festival. The flotilla of boats weaves across the sea of coins as if on a journey to elsewhere. Though the mass of currency resembled a sea, the coins' edges suggest a continent. Questions asked were; is it an ocean or is it land? Are the boats contained or free? Is there a border or a wall? The sheer physical amount of money provoked a dramatic response from audiences.

Eash time this piece has been exhibited people were enthusiastically and involved, adding coins, making stories about the boats, asking about the value of the money, where it's from and how much does it weigh? The money was borrowed for the duration of the exhibitions under the proviso that any loss would be reimbursed at the end. Amusingly in each venue the piece has makes a profit! people like to add their own coins.

Addressing issues of migration, financial markets, value and the history of seafaring nations travelling the globe for trading purposes, this piece asks pertinent questions that are especially relevant today. The work provided a quiet space for reflection in which to enjoy the playful, tactile objects whilst also provoking questions about our relationship to money and how it shapes our fragile world. It invites us to see moneys' role beyond our everyday familiar relationship with it.

Photographs by Simona Pesche, Steve Hickey & Paula Beetlestone - with thanks.

Exhibitions:

Trade Winds St. Peter's Church, University of Cambridge the accompanying exhibition to Migrant Knowledge: Early Modern and beyond, ERC-funded project Crossroads of Knowledge CRASSH and the Faculty of English.

Distancing with: Basil Beattie, Dryden Goodwin & Frances Aviva-Blane EcArtspace

The Sea is The Limit Virginia Commonwealth University, Doha, Qatar 2019. York Art Gallery 2018. Patrick Heide Contemporary Art 2017

Trade Winds Hall Place & Gardens, Kent, Oct 2016 - March 2016

Publications:

Crossings: Migrant Knowledges, Migrant Forms, my chapter - Trade Winds P.453

edited by Rowan Williams, Subha Mukherji & Natalya Din-Kariuki 2025, PunctumBooks

ISBN-13: 978-1-68571-280-8 (print) ISBN-13: 978-1-68571-281-5 (ePDF)

Chapter 32 - Trade Winds

PDF Download Version

The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art chapter 15. 2021

Elephant Magazine The British Artist Tackling the Long Dark Shadow of Colonialism by Paul Carey-Kent 2019

Art After Money, Money After Art Pluto books by Max Haiven 2018

Commissions

Susan Stockwell