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Change is a law of nature,

Performances, 1996 - 2004
by Sonja van Kerkhoff


Above: Performance outside
the London Stock Exchange.
Photo: Annabel Knight, U.K.



For the
Change is a law of nature performances
I informed people that I had currency to trade and presented them with a palette-shaped tray
on which there were 5 plastic coins
(in shades of translucent grey).



Commission by the
U.K. Hull Time-based Arts
for their performance festival Skint, October 1996.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff
Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.



Most people took a coin in their hands and looked at it and fiddled with it while we talked.

My job was to convince them that this currency had some worth.

Although it appeared that I was encouraging them to buy or trade with me, what I was really doing was getting them to consider the issue of ´value´ or ´values´.


Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Julie Penford, U.K.

And in this case their own contribution to this process (the price was what they offered and I then considered that and talked about whether what they had offered was fair or representative).
What they really were valuing was the trust they developed in me -the artist and through that the art object.

And that was the concept behind the whole thing. That value or values are based on how much we trust the produce, and in the art world the produce is really the artist's act, not the paint.

I focused on these coins as ´art´ (and hence of the spirit/ aesthetic) during these exchanges, and this highlighted the moral dimension of commerce, rather than making fun of ´originality´ or ´value´.


Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.


Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Julie Penford, U.K.

 "Commerce is as a heaven, whose sun is trustworthiness and whose moon is truthfulness"

Bahá'u'lláh (Compilation on Trustworthiness)

I was focussing on the relevance of art (money) and about what happens during a transaction and the implied values that go with this, to reflect not only on the evitability of change but to see that it's not such a bad thing.
One aspect of these exchanges was that currency became a memento of change and exchange itself rather than only a means of trade.

Now these sound like lofty ideas, but you might wonder how did it really work with people not 'in' on my story. Well, we talked (engaged), and I mostly asked questions to direct them into thinking about these things and into giving me their own opinions on the value of things, beginning often with the lack of money.


Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.


Change is a Law of Nature,
London, U.K.
photo: Annabel Knight, U.K.

 I was stunned by the receptiveness of people, and it was a great learning experience as well as a lot of fun. People's faces, after the initial unease, would light up, and they really wanted to trade with me, because they valued 'values', not just because of the piece of plastic in their hands.

I made this piece partly in response to the Maastricht Treaty where free trade and a common currency among the EEC countries were two items agreed upon. Living in this city at the time and thinking about these issues, I thought, why not make an art currency whose value is changing and is based on human interaction rather than the idea of some standard form. In a sense these coins can be seen as some sort of universal currency in that the only clearly cultural characteristic is the English text.

Yet in another way they are hardly universal in that their individual value is dependent on particular cultural circumstances.
Maastricht is a provincial city at the periphery of Dutch decision-making, where there is a pride in their own language and distinctive Limburg culture.

However, at the same time, there is an awareness that the province of Limburg is seen as backward and remote by the majority of Dutch residents who live in the west. It is this type of nationalism that hinders many countries, nations, internally and externally.


Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Julie Penfold, U.K.


Change is a Law of Nature,
Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.

I believe that an auxiliary currency (whether of language or of money) is necessary to facilitate communication (and we have it whether we like it or not, say in the power of the Deutschmark which influences other European currencies) and it is healthier to decide on this as an auxiliary, rather than leave it to the majority becoming the deciding factor, where strange ideas such as cultural superiority might come into play.

The shades of grey (in the colour of the coins) refers not just to the complexities of identity and nationalism, but also to my belief that there isn't a particular superior or pure race or colour or answer.

One reason for mixing the idea of money with ethics in my performances was to get people to think about their own responsibility or engagement in this process, not only to do with nationalism or identity, but also to do with daily transactions.

We all need a sense of the myth, romance, the positive or the human, in order to work through our own disappointments, fears or ignorance.

I hope that my change coins bring a smile, some small change perhaps?


Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.

In conversation with Johannes Birringer, U.S.A.

Johannes: I remember my mother showing me, in the 1950s, some large money bills that read "1 billion marks" or "10 billion marks." You could buy a loaf of bread already for 1 million, during the inflation period of 1929. Or was it 1945? I forget. I never forgot those red and green bills, though, strangely large, unreal, fictional. Utterly worthless. My grandparents lost all their savings.
Right now, the situation is different. I just returned from Houston, with no money in my pockets. Charged the airfare to my credit card, and covered all other small expenses with my other visa card. Right now I am broke, since my salary is withheld, for back taxes, and so I will keep charging things to the plastic card, and pay back later. We are getting used to paying with money we don't see, know, care for, except of course we do care because we know what it is like when we can´t pay the credit company. We lose credit, we lose credibility, we become pariahs, we cease to exist. Without credit no bank account, without bank account no credit card, without credit card, no loan and no hotel room in contemporary America, because all hotel reservations are done by charging to visa/master card.

I think your piece is terrific because it doesn't so much (for me) raise the question of art or fiction or art's value or the credibility of art´s value (product name, product recognition, product market value), but the ethics of personal exchange at a time when we'd rather not deal person to person. We use conduits, nets, interfaces, mediators, avatars. We use accountants, lawyers, agents, dealers.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
Hull, U.K., photo: Julie Penfold, U.K.

Sonja: That's what it was all about. It was scary, because on one hand I was really performing, and not following some script.
I had to listen hard to people so I could lead them in the way that I felt would work. With non-artists & encounters on the streets, I had to convince them that I was sincere, that I was really an artist and this was really art currency, and that I wasn't pulling their leg. At some point I'd see a reaction, and then after that how we traded wasn't an issue.

What was interesting is that a number of people asked if it would bring them luck. I told them it would bring them whatever they felt it would bring, but that it didn't have any magical powers in itself. With some it was clear that they had decided that it was some sort of lucky charm anyway. I didn't mind. It was better than buying an art work for investment, and at least this would be meditated on for what it could manifest rather than for what amount of money it could bring in.

With artists/art critics it was different. I didn't need to do any convincing that was I was doing was art. That was already familiar to them. The hard part, and it is significant that only men did this with me, was to get them to be honest. It was clear that they didn't take me seriously enough to put themselves on the line, and with three I decided not to give in until they really had. One offered me a paper fish he had found as part of another performance, and I just stared at him and asked how he dared to offer something he chanced upon as a trade for all the profound thoughts we had exchanged. I just stared him in the eye until he stopped the charade and his demeanour changed and he apologised.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.

My longest and most memorable exchange was with another artist. His approach to me was to make a fake performance of what I was doing. In one sense as we argued and debated, I saw his point, that his art was faking and to offer this was a fair trade. On the other hand I wanted to get beyond his art to him, the person, and it happened in a remarkable way!

With all these performances I had no idea how things would go nor what I would say, and often things came out of me that amazed myself. It is only later that I could see how it went and that I understand the nature of the performance better. At the moment of doing it, all I am doing is channelling myself, and seeing how it will go. It's terrifying and exhilarating.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.

His first tactic was to offer me quotations by famous authors about trading as a trade for the coin. At first I refused on the grounds that it had to have a physical characteristic to be a fair trade, since he was constantly handling and fiddling with the coin. Then he dramatically put the coin on the ground and stood on it, pressing it into a layer of cake icing (an artwork we were both standing on at the time) claiming that in the name of everything since Fluxus or Duchamp we didn't need the coin anymore. I retrieved it from out of the icing and claimed that without the coin, we wouldn't have a grip on the physical, a real part of ourselves. During the hour or more conversation onlookers, added their bit and moved away adding to the whole exchange. In the end we agreed to lease the coin for something of his. He changed and started thinking of what could he offer, instead of what he could trick me into accepting -at least that was my perception.

As he searched over his body for pockets and things, I pointed to his ring covered fingers. His face lit up. He pulled off the ring from his little finger and said "yes, it had to be this one". He then asked me to read the inside, which read 'together forever' in French, and then he proceeded to tell me a long story about how it had belonged to his father who had found it as a boy. It seemed to be an old ring, but since his art was creating a fake history for objects, I wasn't sure about the story, but that gaze in his eyes told me he knew, as painful as it was, that this was a suitable trade, and I felt it too, even though I didn't really want to wear a bulky ring on my finger.
His eight year old daughter was present during most of this discussion, and in particular when we traded the coin and the ring. She was very upset by this. Apparently the ring really did belong to her grandfather and for her it was a symbol of his presence, which was now on the finger of a stranger.

At other times this artist and I had had discussions about the place of art in a society and his view was, while he didn't see that art was above or beyond society, that it was still able to operate in it's own world (I don't strongly disagree with this either, but I still think that art & the day to day are intricately interwoven. It's just modernism & society's belief in this that has created the myth that it is separate.)

About three hours later, he came to me with his daughter and said that against his wishes we had to trade the items back because his daughter was getting more upset.

I saw it as the artist making a choice due to his awareness of the affect of his action on the environment around him. I saw this as politically correct and wonderfully postmodern. I don't believe artists and art are independent of the world.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature, Hull, U.K.
photo: Andy Locke, U.K.

Johannes: Well, you probably don't look like a terrorist or an intimidating person, so they may be willing to offer a little bit more trust, or time. If you had dark skin and a beard, you may be more suspect. People would pretend to not see you.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
outside the London Stock Exchange, U.K.
photo: Annabel Knight, U.K.

Sonja: You are right. And outside the London stock exchange they did perceive me like a beggar and so it was extremely different to make contact but I wouldn't have had a chance if I'd been wearing jeans.

And I was using my "innocent' appearance, innocent in part because I am small and a woman, to establish contact, but at the same time, because of my appearance it took more work to get people to take me seriously.

That was also part of the reason i started doing these sorts of performances: a comment on how the artist as the small woman she is, presents herself and her work.

My 1993 performances with transparent eggcups focussed on this aspect of presentation more.

That was also the reason why it was important to me to do this performance here, outside the London Stock Exchange on a Monday morning. It was scary and difficult but I did because -for me- it was a way of extending myself beyond the perimeters of the performance festival in Hull.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature, 2001, in the Santa Monica main shopping street at Christmas time.
Photo: Tony Lee, U.S.A.

Johannes: I wonder whether anyone you talked with had any sentiments or opinions on xenophobia? on "CHANGE" as a concept, or on changing values. What did they offer you, money, other objects, affection, laughter?

Sonja: A few men in suits around the London stock exchange: one called me a fool with nothing. He was so self-rightous about his opinion of my coins that I just stood and stared at him. I couldn't say anything and I didn't see how I could get through his conceit.

Johannes: Did anyone make a sexist approach, joke, tease you, did someone insult you, spit at you, as it happened to Coco Fusco in the Cage on Trafalgar Square?

Sonja: I considered the offer of a kiss as sexist. The young man even bent down as if he was sure I would agree just because he offered it.

Johannes: Did anybody want to take one of your grey coins?

Sonja: One the first day someone asked to look at a coin and then put it in his pocket and walked away. I ran after him and explained that I had not given it to him. He was surprised as he'd just helped me position the display case for the coins (I had them on display under a very heavy case so they couldn't be stolen). I explained that they were art to be traded and not given. This guy pestered me for days, since he really wanted one but didn't want to offer me money or something else of some value to him for one. In the end I spelled it out that it wasn't a game, that he really had to offer me something of value (He'd also tried bits of paper found on the ground, etc). So on the final evening he bought a pile of things from his house, a cassette tape, a book, a mysterious parcel that he'd forgotten what was in it, and a key ring. I accepted because for me, he had gone and thought about what was a trade.

 performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
December 2001, Santa Monica, LA, U.S.A. Photo: Anthony A. Lee, U.S.A.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
Cheongju City Art Gallery during the opening of the Nine Dragonheads Environment Arts Festival, 2004.
Photo: Erika Batdorf, Canada.

Johannes: Did you actually explain the trade in artistic terms, or economic terms, or in philosophical terms?

Sonja: I never explained what I was doing, rather I responded to questions and comments, and often this did become quite philosophical. Probably because that was my own interest: ie: the value of things. But other times the exchange was full of joking.

I didn't what to get in the economics of the value of things too much because I was aiming to get people to see that value has more to do with what we place on it than what other people or systems place on it. That in the end value is subjective and personal.

Johannes: How do we "deal" with the other. Did the people you "dealt" with deal with you, the costumed artist/vendor, interloper in public spaces? Oh, you didn't have a proper permit?


Sonja: Well at times people crowded around me (probably because of the sight of tv cameras) and in one instance 2 security men from a shopping centre came to break up the conservation we were engaged in, to say that we were blocking the entrance and had to move on. I asked them to wait and finished the deal and then asked how?

We were not blocking the entrance but the crowd was. So I agreed to move deciding that the best way to deal with this was to walk into their precious building. They stopped us again and asked us (those with cameras as well, who were filming all this) to leave. I asked to speak to the manager, thinking I could do the performance with him. I also said that I was part of the festival (legitimizing myself) and in the end it was radioed back that I was allowed to proceed but I was told not to cause any disturbances!

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
Cheongju City Art Gallery during the opening of the Nine Dragonheads Environment Arts Festival, 2004.
Photo: Erika Batdorf, Canada.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
Cheongju City Art Gallery
during the opening
of the Nine Dragonheads Environment Arts
Festival, 2004.
Photo: Erika Batdorf, Canada.

Sonja: So. yes Johannes, I didn't really challenge any 'border' since I was legitimitized as part of the festival for some people I interacted with. Also I wasn't aiming to challenge a barrier/border in that sense. I didn't want people who I approached to be part of that either. So yes, it had to seem ok, at first glance, that I was not doing anything illegitimate, which was another reason for wearing presentable non-challenging clothing and introducing myself politely to people. If anyone showed signs of discomfort, I left them alone.

Johannes: Show me your currency, and I'll tell you where you are from. And I tell you where you come from/to. In Cuba it's easy and complex, disorienting, infuriating. What happens if I step into a Paris train station and want to pay in English Pounds? We shall see how each of the European nations exchange their old currencies for the Euro.

Sonja: This point came up a lot with my interactions in the U.K with non-artists. A lot of people associated the euro with a loss of their identity, rather than as an auxillary. Interesting, in the Netherlands people aren't worried about losing anything with the Euro, even the gulder is set against the more or less stable DM, which is likely to lose some value with the birth of the euro. But I think this touches something deeper. The Dutch are on the whole, travellers/tradespeople and so familiar with foriegn languages, foriegn currency, etc. And it seems that the English are not so familiar, and so I see
it more as a fear of the unknown and the fear of change.

 performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature, Cheongju City Art Gallery during the opening of the Nine Dragonheads Environment Arts Festival, 2004.
Photo: Erika Batdorf, Canada.

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Change is a Law of Nature,
Cheongju City Art Gallery during the opening of the Nine Dragonheads Environment Arts Festival, 2004.
photo: Erika Batdorf, Canada.

Johannes: What exactly is an auxiliary currency? ...and it can't be money if it's auxiliary to money. So what is the auxiliary factor?

Sonja: I think what I mean is 'the extra' or 'alternative'. It's art currency so what you trade or do with it is not the same as the currency used to buy food for example. I was also thinking of a currency that wasn't limited by a national border. I trade it anywhere and the value would be affected by the same factors: how much the trader believed in me or valued the coin. So in that sense it's auxiallary rather than fake. The currency doesn't replace or try to imitate the function of currency as it is used, but rather to add something 'human': an element of change.

Locations for this performance

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