Crypto is moving image work that is wrapped around the body of the Gold Bug. The work deals with complex and entangled, sometimes frictional issues of ecology, wealth and the logic of value. The reference to the gold bug also derives from several sources, including Edgar Allan Poe's story The Gold Bug (1843). In a financial context, a ""gold bug"" advocates for the gold standard, expressing a fervent belief in gold as a stable and valuable asset. In African mythology, the golden beetle symbolizes the rising of the sun. Thus, the bug is seen as a mythical, economic, and biological creature, both living and dead, ventriloquized by recurring social and political practices, a crystal of both ownership and dispossession.

Henna-Riikka Halonen (b. 1975) is a visual artist/researcher who uses a wide range of artistic techniques and historical and cultural references. By creating speculative systems or worlds, her work explores our relationship to materials, objects, words, and living and non-living beings. She has shown her work widely in international exhibitions and festivals.