Ghost Banks
The facade of a bank has traditionally been designed to express the security of its holdings. Ghost Banks are a series of models and prints reconstructed from the facades of bank buildings that I have studied, such as the Chase-Manhattan bank in New York (reproduced as an inverted volume) and the Commonwealth Savings Bank of Australia (from the model of a promotional money box). In most instances the reconstruction stages a theatrical contradiction between the bank’s exterior expression and its structural function as a strongbox. Some contain an implicit reference to the concept of a ‘broken bank’ - a term that was used during the era of free-banking in America to describe a bank which had collapsed due to its issuing currency in excess of its holdings in specie. The "ghost bank" was one of these types - a spurious bank that didn't exist as a building and yet in whose name printed money was issued.