STOREFRONT for Art and Architecture, New York City February 1983
The Money Show
Financial Community
Working and Buying
Of Human Bondage
The Money Show is considered Watchface’s first performance because it was the first by
Watchface performers using the method that characterized Watchface’s work. It was
created, however, seven months before the first performance containing all seven of its
eventual members and more than three years before the name Watchface existed.
The Money Show was also the name of a group show of artworks on the topic of money,
exhibited at STOREFRONT for Art and Architecture in Little Italy on Monday, February 21, 1983.
The Money Show flyer Both James Siena and Iris Rose had works on display*, but they also
created a brief performance, as did five other performance artists, to mark the closing night.
The piece contained three sections: Financial Community, Working and Buying, and Of
Human Bondage. Unlike later Watchface shows, no video, photographs, or complete script
of the piece remains, only a picture of Iris Rose holding a bag of pennies, the outcome of a
performance by another of the artists, Kwok. Iris with pennies
The Money Show, which was never performed again, was presented on a raised platform
in the front display window of the storefront, while a blizzard raged outside as backdrop.
Despite the snowstorm, the small gallery was crowded with appreciative art and
performance lovers.
*Both of the artworks shown here, Designing a New Bill and Wrong, are by Iris Rose. James
Siena’s piece has been lost.
Designing a New Bill
Wrong
