questionable lobby art [UPDATED]

[UPDATE: These images were created by Korean artist Ji Hojun. His website is here, and you can get a good look at the penny/Obama image here, and the quarter/9-11 image here. They're part of a series of Ji's artwork that features coins from around the world. Still not sure why someone felt they belonged in a corporate lobby in Yeouido, though.]


My office is located in a large building in Yeouido. The lobby of the building (not of my company mind you, but of the building in which it's located) used to be decorated with two large National Geographic style prints of wildlife in the African savanna. As of this past Monday morning, they had been replaced by two very odd pieces of "art." From a distance, they appeared to be as follows: an image of a penny, surrounded by multi-colored bubbles, and an image of a quarter, likewise surrounded by multi-colored bubbles. I thought it was odd that American money would be on display in a corporate building in Korea (why not the Korean won instead?), but didn't give it much thought.

Yesterday I passed close by the penny image, and realized that the 'bubbles' featured distorted images from newspapers from 2008, featuring Obama just after his election. The penny was a 2008 penny... so I guess that makes sense? Maybe?

Today I got a close look at the quarter image... and it's... odd. It features a damaged 1967 quarter, surrounded by bubbles featuring news coverage of 9/11. Specifically numerous images of the twin towers burning. Maybe the damaged quarter came from the wreckage of the towers? It's rather a morbid image to have in the lobby of a corporate building. Perhaps if it were in the lobby of a US government building, or a military contractor's office, or an office in New York? Here, where it's mere lobby decor it seems both tacky and offensive.
Not the best shot - taken with my cell and at an odd angle, as this thing is located behind the building's security desk.