Six " banknotes ", colored chalk and ball-point pen on toilet paper

Georgine Hu
 French nationality
Born in Fouquières-lèz-Lens on December 10th, 1939
 
Georgine lived an unhappy childhood. She was raped by her alcoholic father who had been hospitalized several times. Her mother is incapable of taking care of her seven children. Georgine starts showing signs of mental problems at the age of fourteen. She is hospitalized at Fleury-les-Aubrais in the Loiret. When she leaves the hospital, she tries to work as a housekeeper. At the age of seventeen, she is permanently institutionalized at the hospital of Saint-Venant for schizophrenia. Her work can be divided into two parts: the first one represents mostly cities inspired by pictures from newspapers, animals or human figures. The other one, probably the more fascinating one, is a series of bank bills. Using toilet paper, Georgine paints herself as a historical figure, a royal effigy: one could think of Louis XIV, the Sun King, the absolute monarch. Money is therefore associated with royalty, with power. But why would she paint her own portrait on toilet paper? These bills have real value for her and she gives them out to the staff of the hospital.
 
In his doctoral thesis Philippe Mons quotes one of the nurses: " Georgine comes near me and shows me two bills of five hundred million, drawn on toilet paper; I ask her if these are old francs or new francs. She says: "Come on, Monique, these are new francs, old francs don't exist anymore!" She then takes a bill in each hand, applies them against the table and starts turning them several times: "You see, I turn them over and over again on this table so they become real money. Because, you see, all my bills, they come by land; Becard (the hospital bookkeeper) sends them to me, then I turn them and turn them on this table so that they become real money, then I hold them against my heart so that they remain real money. Then I can buy myself a car."
 
SEE ALSO: MONS (Philippe). Doctoral thesis: L'inachèvement. Evolution des discours relatifs aux productions artistiques des malades mentaux. Etude de cinq cas cliniques, Lille, 1990.
 
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