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# Project Description WE ARE THE ONES WHO ARE TRULY WEALTHY xiaoyun ying Summary Final work This project reconstructs the visual symbols of recurring financial crises from the eighteenth century to the present. Through a series of six mixed-media collages, it reflects different stages of trust and collapse within global financial systems. Gold leaf is used to represent the fragile illusion of prosperity, its reflective surface contrasting with the cracks and peels that reveal instability beneath. Each fragment connects historical imagery and contemporary speculation, exposing how economic value, resource extraction, and belief intertwine. The work positions financial faith as both material and metaphor, always fragile yet persistently relied upon to give value. This project reconstructs the visual symbols of recurring financial crises from the eighteenth ce... College London College of Communication Course MA Photography Graduation year 2025 This project examines the visual and material language of financial trust through a series of six mixed-media collages. Drawing on historical and contemporary crises—from the eighteenth-century speculative bubbles to present-day digital economies—the work reconstructs the recurring cycle of prosperity, collapse, and rebranding that defines global capitalism. Each collage revisits a moment of financial faith and failure: from the tulip mania, to gold’s illusion of stability, to contemporary patterns of extraction and monopoly. Gold leaf is used as both surface and concept: its radiant luminosity evokes wealth and desire, while its cracks, erosion, and peeling reveal the fragility that underpins economic value. Archival references, historical imagery, and fragments of news media are layered within each piece, tracing the migration of capital from the material to the abstract, from resources to belief. The work situates financial systems as an ecological condition—an atmosphere we inhabit rather than observe. Through controlled repetition of light, fracture, and surface decay, the series reflects on how faith in value structures both society and self. In the final collage, gold becomes sealed and inert, symbolizing the re-packaging of instability as renewed confidence. Across the series, trust functions not as stability but as spectacle: fragile, performative, and endlessly re-gilded. Final work Flow of Wealth Gold keeps moving, quietly. No one asks where it goes. Trust and Waiting They walk toward the light. It shines from what blinds them. System Crack The system holds, then slips. Trust breaks, but the glass still glows. Resource Map The world turns red and gold. Every border burns a little brighter. Research and process The Process of Gold Leaf Application System Crack Collage Process Mounting Process Final framing layout Share this project This project examines the visual and material language of financial trust through a series of six mixed-media collages. Drawing on historical and contemporary crises—from the eighteenth-century speculative bubbles to present-day digital economies—the work reconstructs the recu... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Archives & Collections Being Human Conflict & Its Effects Materiality Realities Collage Colour Photography
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