€1,000,000,000 House: Turning Destruction into Art

          The death of the Celtic Tiger has left unfinished housing developments all over the country and the only beauty that has come out of the more than 2,000 ghost estates is the graffiti that covers the cement foundations. This was true up until Frank Buckly decided to make a monument to the financial crisis by literally shredding money. I wandered into the museum last week and found that the walls, floors, and furniture were actually made out of a dust of shredded euros. The walls are composed of bricks, each worth €50,000, and the makeshift carpet is made of money as well. Everywhere you look, there's shredded money, acting as a testament to the wasteful and I stood on the porch looking at the artwork on the walls (also made of money) when a gruff looking Irishman walked in from across the street and introduced himself as Frank, the artist. 
          I asked him where he got so much money from, and he smiled and said it was a secret and he couldn't tell me. After doing some research, I learned that he collected two trailers full of notes worth €1.4 billion, given on loan from the mint. The house is made of 1,000 6"x 2" bricks, which provides excellent insulation during the winter. 
          Frank was inspired, upset, and furious when his good friend committed suicide after the bubble burst and lost his house and wife during the financial crisis. He thought to himself, "This is just paper." He felt that their needs to be an open debate on what currency means. Frank currently lives in the "One Billion Euro House"and uses it as a venue to sell his artwork. I'm inspired by his audacity to show the world how little money is worth, and his effort to turn a miserable crisis into a piece of artwork. His project is proof that beauty can be born out of destruction.