It's a story from the Cold War era, about the Soviet spy who posed as a spy in New York (look at the work Amateur). This includes the game of hide and seek. Messages were translated into codes and thus made unrecognisable. These messages were hidden in prepared daily objects. In this case, it was a piece of microfilm hidden in a hollowed coin. A lot can be said about coins. They are evidence of events that took place centuries ago, all the way back to ancient Rome. With their embossed motifs, they always depict power relations. They often exceed the value that the piece of metal would have, representing a value that goes beyond the numeral in the case of special coins. Some coins are then given a special history. They could be the first money earned by the military man Scrooge McDuck. Or Batman's opponent Two-Face leaves his decisions to the flip of the coin. The referee tosses the coin to determine which football team will kick off. This tossing of the coin is something absolute. There is one side or the other, yes or no, good or bad, us or them. So it comes back to the Cold War, there was the USA and the USSR (and only a few states that stayed out of it). The picture series "pitch'n'toss", which means heads or tails, shows some nickels. The spy had hollowed out a 5 cent coin like this. The code is large and painted all over the motifs on the coins. The lettering and the application of colour are reminiscent of the Numbers Paintings by Jasper Johns, who painted them in New York when the spy was also travelling there. Andy Warhol liked to paint banknotes...

2024
105 cm x 150 cm
Mixed media on canvas

Actually, I didn't like the pitch'n'toss version from 2013 no more, destroyed and replaced it by this one.