watch martin john callanan reconstruct a shredded polymer £5 note

on the 13th of september 2016, the bank of england started the circulation of the polymer £5 note featuring sir winston churchill. these new banknotes include many security features not present in the paper ones like metameric inks. some of them didn’t make the cut and were shredded. that’s when martin john callanan — an artist researching an individual’s place within systems — comes in and takes on an almost impossible mission; to reconstruct them.

martin john callanan is an artist researching an individual’s place within systems

this piece of conceptual art by martin john callanan results in an 11-minute time lapse video where an entire work day is compressed. in it, you can see how patience, dedication and meticulousness come together to give a second life to something that was already destined to be forgotten. together with music by benedict drew, the piece talks about systems, capitalism, and consumerism; as well as puzzles, construction and deconstruction.

called ‘banknote reconstructed’, the art piece is a time lapse video showing the artist’s meticulous process

in it, he takes a shredded polymer £5 banknote and tries to reconstruct it

the work took a whole day to be completed

the video compresses this whole day into eleven minutes

the puzzle-like experiment requires the use of special gloves and tweezers

the artist starts by organizing the colors 

and then starts putting piece by piece 

the video is complemented by benedict brew’s music

the shredded pieces of the banknote before separation