Nicotine Religion

I chose this category because, from far away, all you see is crosses. It's only once you come up on it, do you really see what it is - dollar bills and cigarettes. I did make this and rubber cemented every one of those bills so they'd stay rolled up. I also had to pick up all of the cigarette butts for the base. Sorry that there's not a better picture, but I had to destroy it after displaying it because too many people tried to steal the money off of it. It was completed for my 3D Design class at SCAD. (Spring 2005)

Here's the explanation:

This work, “Nicotine Religion” is based more on the controversy over cigarettes than religion, but at the same time has relevancy in both subjects. The main form of the piece, the twenty crosses represent how many cigarettes come in a pack. They are also arranged in the same way that they are found in a package of cigarettes - two rows of seven and one row of six in between. As for the other references contained in this piece, I wanted to convey that smoking is much like a religion. Seeing as how we live in America, the most dominating religion is Christianity. The piece is not attacking Christianity but just relating the addictive qualities of cigarettes to it.

I wanted to convey a sense of mortality to this piece and so with the cross form already completed I decided to do nineteen more for a full twenty - the amount that comes in a pack of cigarettes. Not only did I construct twenty crosses out of cigarettes and dollar bills but to strengthen the meaning of death, I arranged them as they would be found in a cemetery; so not only does the composition mimic a pack of cigarettes, but a cemetery as well. The dollar bills are indeed real and I think that because of that, the alternate meaning of smoking burning your money away with each puff is strengthened. Also, the way that the bills are presented to the viewer was also taken into consideration. From far away the horizontal lines on the crosses may seem to have a line across them but upon further inspection the viewer sees that the line is actually the text ”In God we trust” on the back of the bill. This was selected as the way to present the bills so that the viewer could connect the idea of smoking and religion, but this time include money into the idea and the whole thing begins to come together.

Finally the ground was constructed out of cigarette butts found only in the Dyson House Courtyard. While the location of their origin has no bearing on the project at all, their inclusion does. I chose to use the butts to represent the ground because they are always on the ground. One day we are going to walk out of our doors and all we will able to see on the ground are cigarette butts - I just decided to speed up the process a little. The lack of cleanliness in the piece is completely intentional. Cigarettes are not a high-class treat, they are cancer-stick death-machines for the masses. They are dirty and so I did not choose to clean the butts of dirt and debris, I left them just as I found them. The overall shape of the piece was originally supposed to be square, but due to a lack of cigarette butts, I had to improvise and so the piece became thin and rectangular. It was only after what I had done had I realized that this new form represents line much better than the previous form. Overall, I would have to say that this piece represents line and line quality and also inventive use of unusual objects.