Unfortunately I, like the majority of average westerners, owe money. After a visit to one bank I took a complementary pen. When I got home I began to work out my monthly in-comings and outgoings, rent, travel, food etc... with the intention of forming some kind of repayment plan. I got frustrated and looked down at the pen I was writing with; the branded blue pen from the bank. Printed on the spine of the pen was the phrase ‘Borrowed from my bank’. I decided to see how much ‘ink’ I could ‘borrow from my bank’. I started to fill in each square on A3 graph paper until the ink ran out. I wanted to see if I could fill the page or not. In the same way I try to stretch my wages and manage debt each month. As the project progressed I started to use the ink to depict specific financial data related to particular financial institutions and their/our role in this recession.

Each of these drawings is made using all the ink from a single ball point pen. Each individual pen has been acquired for free from the banks listed below. This currently a work in progress more images will be added as the project develops.

Works
Allied Irish bank, 2010
Barclays - 'Borrowed from my bank' 2008
Barclays - 'Borrowed from my bank' #2 2008
Barclays I love a good doodle. 2010
Barclays - 'I'm free! Now there's a thought' 2010
Barclays 'I used to be a plastic cup' 2009
Barclays - 'Take me I'm yours' #1 2008-9
Barclays, 'Take me I'm yours' 2008-9
Barclays 'Unlimited edition' 2008
Barclays 'Write here, write now'. 2010
BNP Paribas, 2010
Credit Agricole Corporate and investment bank 2010
Deutsche bank, A passion to pre form 2009
Halifax - Sold working together with our local community 2009
HSBC 2009
Islamic bank of Britain. 2009
JP Morgan, 2009
Lloyds TSB 2009
Nationwide 'Pride' 2010
Northern rock. 2008-09
RBS 2009

Exhibition - Open studio Hackney Wicked 2010

Published as work in progress in Dutch newspaper nrc.next in November 2009 - View tear sheet