Erin Morrison’s coin series began with the artist’s pure interest in coins as a material curiosity. For the past three years, the artist has focused her unique sculptural process of gypsumcast relief on early coins circulated in the United States before and shortly after its founding. As the artist moved to Hong Kong in the summer of 2019, in the midst of massive local happenings and later global pandemic, her motivations as to which coins to reproduce and which subjects to focus on began to shift. Between studios and countries, and whilst in periods of isolation during the pandemic, she has been alternating her creative focus between the coin and palm series, each with a different personality.
Presenting here at the show are Erin’s new works of 1862 Straits Settlements Cent, reflecting on the Straits Settlement copper piece circulated by the British East India Company through regions of Southeast Asia established as outposts during and after the second Opium War.
