MEANINGLESS TRANSACTIONS

An artistic performance staged as a market stall by Jacqui Orly Ammon

An artistic performance staged as a market stall. The stall is set out with baskets containing money sorted by denomination: 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £5 and £10. Each basket is clearly visible and openly accessible, just like goods for sale at a market. There are no objects, services, or products on offer beyond the money itself.

Visitors are invited to take part in a transaction. Penny for penny, pound for pound, money is exchanged for the exact same monetary value. A participant may hand over 50p and receive 50p in return, or exchange a £5 note for an equivalent amount made up of smaller denominations. There is no profit, no loss, and no material gain.

What appears meaningless paradoxically becomes meaningful through interaction. Conversations begin, opinions are shared, and brief connections are formed between strangers. The work shifts attention away from money as value and towards exchange as a social act, revealing that meaning emerges not from the transaction itself, but from the human encounter it produces.

Practicalities: The site is wheelchair accessible.

About the Artist
Jacqui Orly Ammon is interested in paradox, uncertainty, and illusion. Questions about what is real and what is not are increasingly being reflected by artificial intelligence and the growing difficulty of trusting images, information, and news.

She is drawn to contradiction: systems that appear solid and factual but are actually invented and unstable. Money is one of these systems. Its power comes from collective belief rather than inherent worth, which makes it both functional and artificial.

Similar contradictions exist in how we understand the world: love and hate, war and peace are often simplified or misused by media which favours clear stories over complexity. Nuances are lost, and opposing truths are presented as if only one can exist.

Jacqui focuses on art, poetry, and everyday interactions within this confusion. They allow space for honesty, ambiguity, and real human connection, offering moments of authenticity within systems that are often abstract and artificial.