Coin Vortex for Student Debt
2014

Sculpture, enameled metal

This is a purpose-built version of a coin vortex or coin funnel, a device used for fundraisers, commonly found in malls. The sculpture invites visitors to drop a coin and watch it spin down into a hole—a symbolic act of throwing money into a pit, evoking the downward spiral of students in the United States who are forced to take on crushing debt. The intertwined issues of student debt, mortgage default, and financial bailout are addressed on the panels, with statistics as well as Rosler's comments on the crisis: "Blaming students for incurring debt, like blaming house-holders for incurring incomprehensibly encumbered mortgages, is like blaming the victims as though they were complicit. They were gulled, not complicit."