david spriggs' gold, ghostly figures turn the 'wealth pyramid' on its head

in downtown pittsburgh, an area colloquially referred to as the ‘golden triangle’, artist david spriggs has created a ‘stratachromic’ installation formed from 168 precisely-layered spray pantings. for this most recent chromatic artwork examining contemporary symbolic meanings of color, ‘gold’ presents 11 human figures hung upside-down within an inverted pyramid structure. painted on transparent film and producing a ghostly, phantasmal effect, the bodies depicted are immediately reminiscent of those featured on new york stock exchange pediment — an allegorical tableau of figures representing ideas like ‘integrity’, ‘science’, and the ‘works of man’.

presented at wood street art galleries, spriggs’ ‘gold’ turns the symbol of the new york stock exchange literally on its head, seeking to depict its current precarious state. with ‘the glory of capitalism on its apex’ the 36 foot-wide installation ‘speaks to the widening inequity within the global wealth pyramid and the concentration of excessive wealth and corresponding power into the hands of a select few,’ spriggs describes.

‘the viewer may be unsettled by the mirage-like-forms and suggestively paganic imagery. is this intensely-saturated golden color representative of fools or of wealth? yet we note that the figures of the artwork are not engaged in various forms of industry, in service to a central goddess of commerce, but rather are subservient, aloof or apart. such is the relationship of many with today’s economy.’

the installation is formed from 168 precisely-layered spray paintings

‘gold’ presents 11 human figures hung upside-down within an inverted pyramid structure

the figures are painted on transparent film and produce a ghostly, phantasmal effect

the bodies depicted are immediately reminiscent of those featured on new york stock exchange pediment

the original pediment is an allegorical tableau of figures representing ideas like ‘integrity’ and ‘science’

‘gold’ turns the symbol of the new york stock exchange literally on its head

an illustration of ‘gold’ by spriggs

photo of the new york stock exchange pediment by beyond my ken, via wikimedia commons

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