The History of Financial Crises

This installation aimed to re-enact the history of financial crises over the last century. By condensing these one hundred years into the short period of time that the gallery was open each day, the frenzied moments of crisis were re-lived, in chronological order, over the course of a few hours.
‘Lined up in the centre of the space - primed and ready to go off - are eleven second-hand popcorn making machines. Each machine represents one of the eleven major financial crises of the last century, beginning with the infamous Wall Street Crash of 1929. As the day goes on, the popcorn machines are activated one-by-one at times corresponding to their dates within the century. For a matter of minutes an air of chaos envelopes the space as popcorn explodes frantically onto the floor. Then all goes quiet again... until the next crisis occurs’.
This installation was first shown alongside the work Transactions at Mejan Labs in Stockholm, Sweden in April 2009 as part of the exhibition Transfers and Actions. You can view details of all eleven financial crises featured in the installation in the gallery handout which you can download by clicking on the link to the right under ‘Further Reference’.
Exhibition History
16 April - 7 June 2009, Mejan Labs, Stockholm
7 - 28 August 2010, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
7 - 28 November 2010, Market Gallery, Glasgow
30 April - 1 May 2011, Trajector Art Fair, Brussels
1 November - 17 December 2011, Vane, Newcastle
15 - 17 March 2013, Thrift Radiates Happiness, Birmingham Municipal Bank
2 - 26 May 2013, Money after Money / Credit Game 2013, Eye of Gyre, Japan
Further Reference
- Installation images
- Video of The History of Financial Crises on Vimeo
- Download gallery handout
- Images from Transfers and Actions on Flickr
Other Projects
- High Street Casualties: Ellie Harrison’s Zombie Walk
- Dark Days
- After the Revolution, Who Will Clean Up the Mess?
- The Global Race
- Transition Community of One
- Attempt at an Inventory...
- Anti-Capitalist Aerobics
- The Other Forecast
- The Redistribution of Wealth
- The End Product
- Austerity & Anarchy
- Fair Game
- Early Warning Signs
- A Brief History of Privatisation
- The History of Revolution: Ellie Harrison’s Fireworks Display
- Press Release
- General Election Drinking Game
- Toytown
- Vending Machine
- The History of Financial Crises
- Transactions
- Know Your Thinkers & Theorists
- Angel Row Jukebox
- Self-Destruction (Building Site Ballot)
- I’ve Been Watching You
- Daily Data Display Room
- Daily Data Display Wall
- Sneezes 2003
- The Monthly Sculptures Determined by the Daily Quantification Records
- Gold Card Adventures
- Statistics Are Hot Air
- TicTac Typing & Peanut Typing
- Mass = Energy = Time
- Potential Generator
- Kinetic Cake vs Kinetic Carrot