Capital Persuasion

Rujunko Pugh (Syberweerd)’s “Capital Persuasion” is a digital, 3D coin inscribed with a black-Asian code. This code is part of an ongoing project that the artist developed to explore the semiotic space in which meanings shift between signifiers and to examine mechanisms that disrupt western-centered ideas of race.

Unique characters in the black-Asian code were created and assigned to the 26 letters in the modern English alphabet. Each character was generated by combining iconographic segments of black hair curls and Asian calligraphic script. The cultural imagery is symbolic of the visual cues that evoke racist constructs of anti-blackness and the Asian minority model in western cultures. The two segments in each of the black-Asian characters take effect on one another when combined, and as a result, the existing meanings are transformed to represent letters in the alphabet, thus demonstrating a disruption of the constructed meanings associated with race.

The coin represents the drive for wealth and power that motivate the constructions of racial biases and discrimination as mechanisms to divide groups of people and maintain societal inequalities. It bears the black-Asian cipher on one side, and on the other, is a message to be deciphered.

More information on the black-Asian code can be found here http://rujunkopugh.com/A-Blue-Skies-Conversation.

Shapeways Collection: First collectors of this work will receive a corresponding 3D print from Shapeways. Within two weeks of the sale closing, Feral File will contact collectors to input their name, email address, and shipping information to provide to Shapeways for fulfillment. Shipping and printing costs are included in the price of the work. Note that all orders will take 6-8 weeks to deliver. After initial collection, NFTs can continue to be collected on the secondary market without the 3D printed component.

The slices are printed in wax and then cast in bronze with a natural finish, with a size of approximately 4.8cm x 4.8cm x 0.2cm