Jess Dobkin | Tit Coin

Jess Dobkin

Tit Coin

Toronto, Canada: Self-published, 2023

12 x 8.5 cm.

Edition size unknown

Last week marked the 15th anniversary of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The domain name bitcoin.org was registered on the 18th of August, 2008. Less than a month later, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers triggered the kind of financial crisis unseen since the Great Depression. 

Six weeks after that, on Halloween, a white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto was posted, describing a decentralized system for electronic transactions not reliant on trust: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

It's unclear whether the banking crisis impacted the ideology of bitcoin, but its failure certainly helped the rise of cryptocurrency and it's appeal to the financial 'counterculture'. 

Earlier this year, performance artist Jess Dobkin released Tit Coin, a work made in collaboration with Lisa Kiss Design. The coin (complete with raised nipple) comes packaged with a signed card, foil-stamped card in a biodegradable sleeve. 

Tit Coin was released alongside a major commission from the Wellcome Collection, in London, England. Titled For What It's Worth, the installation considers the politics and ethics of selling and exchanging human milk in the 21st century. The exhibition features over 100 items, including historical objects, artworks and new commissions, and asks why has cow’s milk come to be seen as essential to a good diet in the UK? When did breastfeeding become a political subject? And how has milk been used to exert power as well as provide care?

 

The show continues until September 10th. Titcoin is available from the gift shop. 

A forthcoming monograph on the artist's work will be co-published by Intellect and The Art Gallery of York University (AGYU). Jess Dobkin's Wetrospective is edited by Laura Levin and will include contributions from Wetrospective curator Emelie Chhangur and others. The title is due out in the fall.