by Lori Zimmer,

Artist Mark Wagner has created the most expensive broom in the world by replacing traditional plastic bristles with cut up dollar bills! His ‘recycled’ Dollar Broom literally sweeps up your mess by throwing money at it!

The artist has rolled up hundreds of dollar bills and affixed them to a base of a broom in place of plastic bristles. The dollars are shredded at the ends and anchored into circular welds. Wagner has also arranged the dollar rolls of the front of the broom to create an elongated dollar bill, with George Washington’s iconic portrait stretched over five rolls of shredded bills. The dense rectangle of bristles looks like it could amount to several hundred dollars. Wagner’s piece could actually be put to good use by sweeping up the art gallery floor in which it is displayed.

We have seen artists use money as their medium before, but not with the same message as Wagner’s piece. His Dollar Broom can be interpreted as a reflection of our country’s way of cleaning up messes – by throwing money at it. It can also be viewed as a commentary on the art world – an industry of money buying money, literally. As the broom is used, it gets dirty, and thus Wagner’s piece addresses the notion of dirty money.

Either way, the world’s most expensive broom – usable or not – has succeeded in making us thinking about money, and how we use it.

(Source: www.inhabitat.com )