Can't I Just Become a Debt Collector?

An art piece on financial anxiety  

Words by Miles Greville

‘Money’ issue centrefold by Miles Greville

Amongst the struggling artist lifestyle, I find myself fantasizing a dark alternate self — a gold chained, hammer wielding debt collector, preying on the afflicted for personal gain.  

My art piece, Debt Collector, explores this guilty pleasure fantasy. It may seem strange to fantasise about a degenerate version of oneself, but through an understanding of my own positionality I’ve been able to make sense of these somewhat strange thoughts. 

Growing up in a family of seven with two working parents, money was a strange subject matter. My parents are frugal people who never really shared with me the reality of their financial situation. During childhood I experienced many things that made me think we were very poor and many things that made me think we were quite rich. To this day I still don’t really understand where we sat.  

One thing my parents were very open about when it came to money was that no one was just going to give it to me. I had to earn it, and once I had it, to spend it was foolish. Money is a tool to earn more money — and eventually financial freedom.  

At 17, I got work as a carpentry apprentice. I worked there for four years, until I ended up leaving to pursue a pipe dream career in art, starting with Fine Arts at Massey University. This shift from a blue-collar career to the starving artist lifestyle was a hard one. And it was made even harder seeing people from my hometown experiencing a financial freedom I had never had — from means I knew were less than legal. 

It was in this converging point of taught frugality, financial struggles and watching old friends buy a car just to wreck it for weekend fun, that my evil fantasies began.  

I became jealous, why do I have to struggle? Why can’t I sustain myself from the work of others? Why couldn’t I be a ruthless debt collector, a loan shark to degenerate gamblers who would get theirs by any means necessary?  

The creation of Debt Collection was a therapeutic experience for these thoughts. I sought to understand them. It was a chance for me to look within to understand who I am and where I come from.