Exhibition of color photographs from a body of work called “The Penny Project.”
- April to December 2024
- 111 Thayer Street, 3rd floor, Political Science Department Atrium
Perhaps the most revered president, Abraham Lincoln has been stamped onto the obverse of the American one cent coin since 1909, the centennial of his birth. Lincoln’s embossed profile speaks of a very turbulent and divided time in America that included the Civil War, slavery, and his assassination. Each innocent touch of a penny is a subconscious contact with those core underpinnings of our history.
The coins in this photographic series of pennies were discovered distressed “as is.” They were located in common places such as in penny jars, on bedside tables, in washing machines, under car floor mats, in the street and beside a railroad track. The scaling-up of the penny brings the coin’s surface into a near landscape. The copper is a battlefield of scratches, gouges, and corrosion. Like the scars and marks on warriors and laborers, they are earned. I did not alter them myself but rather selected them for their notable distress. One of the levels of interpretation of the work is an open-ended look at the stresses on and challenges to democracy, as exemplified by the hide-and-seek of the profile of Abraham Lincoln on the U.S. one cent. Although no didactic message is provided, the distressed coins invite one to reflect on democracy and how it is a messy system, continually challenged as the world spins forward.Perhaps a distressed penny describes American democracy better than a crisp, freshly stamped one from the U.S. Mint.
Penny #00 is what started the Penny Project. It was in a penny jar on my desk and when I put it under a loupe and felt that I was looking at Abraham Lincoln with bullet holes.
The portrait of Lincoln on the one cent coin was designed by sculptor, engraver, and medalist Victor David Brenner. He was a Lithuanian immigrant.
Sandor Bodo
About the Artist
Born in Budapest, Hungary, of artist parents, the 3-year-old Sandor was carried under wraps and on shoulders as the Bodos fled Hungary during the Uprising of 1956. Fleeing to safety and in search of a new life, they eventually resettled in Nashville, Tennessee. Even as a lad, Bodo was always involved in the making of images and objects of art. Entering Brown University in 1971 brought Bodo to Providence, where he secured a BA in fine art. Then he extended his education in England, at Sheffield Polytechnic School of Art and Design and at the Royal College of Art in London in 1978, where he earned an MFA in photography. Bodo returned to Providence, Rhode Island, and was a staff photographer at the Providence Journalfrom 1996 until 2020.
The range of materials and techniques in Bodo’s work is as diverse as his background would suggest. Perhaps best known for his sculpted stereopticons that display his 3-D images of Providence at night, Bodo also explores spatial and color concerns through sculpted and painted reliefs. Film and video-making have been a constant since high school. In 1996 and 1997, Bodo opened his spatial explorations to include sound installation works at WaterFire and in Convergence X, with “Fire Chant” and “Sacred Ground” and “Oscillating Chorus.” Works by Bodo are in the collections of the Royal College of Art, Imperial College, Rhode Island School of Design, Tennessee Fine Arts Center, and of private collectors.