An Unusual Invitation

X Projects provides a home for non-traditional publications where artists can move freely in a space unconstrained by book bindings or traditional pagination. Each of the subsequent works from X Projects will be part of an artistic accretion, according to Grant, an ethos where artists’ “small gestures will add up over time and compound interest” forming an ever-evolving legacy of new creations. This unusual invitation will flush out what’s often an isolationist artistic practice and then buffer it with community by “being with others, with a village…being with,” she predicts.

X Projects embraces the artist whose niche is unknown, “the awkward of the idea that doesn’t quite go anywhere,” Grant tells us. Each publication’s editorial and design concerns converge on the gap of understanding what a book might not be after all.

Termed the “stack” or the “wad of bills” the possibilities of X Projects’ first publication, Funny Money, are endless: a game, a toy, a political protest? Up to you. Velasquez sought to imaginatively represent the value of American greed and capitalism, contemplating the ways in which we consume our environment. “Instead of living with nature, we live on top of it, just piling it all on” the LA born-and-raised artist explains: “We are the monsters.” Refuting the very design and intention of a bound book, he imagines folks handing out the bills as they go about their day in a deliberate about-face, where the prescribed value of paper can mean whatever you want.

“It’s all made up,” he says of money. “People want it, they flaunt it, it’s nonexistent really.” Here, Funny Money is what the reader makes of it.

Family is the function of those behind X Projects; they mentor artists to help them encounter new publics and connections. Part of this journey is the discovery, something X Projects holds near to heart. The publisher and artist came to know one other on social media after Grant admired Velasquez’s illustrations created during long bus commutes. A project years in the making, Grant knew she wanted Velasquez to inaugurate X Projects, building a framework around his illustrations and 3D modeling. In keeping with XAB’s mission to bolster artistic community, X Projects worked with LA-based Echelon for scanning needs, and with Danny Kirschenbaum, founder of LA printing and framing studio Umico, to produce the stack.

“Love is almighty,” one of the bills declares. Velasquez warmly refers to Grant as “Alejandra,” exemplifying the compassionate sensibilities of Funny Money. A fan of creatures and the fantasy world, Velasquez hopes the stack’s political commentary is met with tenderness, guided by the current that darkness ≠ evil. It lives within each of us. Velasquez is one of those tacitly beautiful teachers of contemplation who wants humans to see their patterns, and do something about them.

“Why do we separate ourselves” Velasquez asks, “when we can offer physical and emotional connections to one other?” Funny Money reminds us that money is like nature. It responds to the pressures we inflict upon it.

A genuinely fat wad of bills, Funny Money directly—and experientially—responds to the mythology of capitalism that often embodies many dark forms. It takes on this mythology with comedy but also “ties money to myths, downfalls, warnings,” says Grant. “Excess of consumption is a mythic pattern of humans.”

As with all patterns that are eventually breached, Funny Money is likely to continue evolving. The next step involves turning the bills into a Non-Fungible Token. X Projects is working with Velasquez on creating an NFT to further complicate the idea of exchange and the digital literacy of both monetary value and the pandemic. In response to the current moment, a Funny Money bill transformed into a digital asset curates a higher octave of artistic trespassing, one where meaning looks at itself between mirrored cryptographies.

What is sure to be a growing titan of non-traditional publishing, X Projects plans to see how folks interact with each new edition through launch parties, gallery exhibitions, commercial spaces—the possibilities, again, are endless. While X Projects launched during the pandemic’s digital-only structure, they hope the haptic experience of their publications is not so far off, so they can evolve “in an organic space and time to figure out how people can connect to it,” says Grant.

“We put ‘In God We Trust’ on our bills, but not on our missiles or planes or ships. Why not?” Velasquez wonders. “I always thought that was funny.”