Nelson Saiers

One of a series of paintings playing with the notion of still-life.  By cutting the elevator cable a zero-gravity environment is created inside the carriage. In essence creating an environment where Pollock's gravity dependent drip paintings would be impossible to create.  The other elements of the piece refer to Pascal, Leibniz, Newton, Picasso and others comparing several 17th century math battles with the battle between purely abstract artists like Pollock with Picasso and his abstractions.

A white flag typically is associated with weakness and surrender.  In contrast to this, Tang celebrates the extraordinary achievement of the United States Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The work draws on the iconic imagery of the United States flag that Neil Armstrong planted on the moon's surface, which in reality was bleached white by radiation due to the moon's limited atmosphere. Here, the white flag backdrop recalls this highest of accomplishments. The most prominent feature of the work is the word “Peace” painted in 11 Tang colored braille marks. This word hints at another goal we should all strive for, but also references the plaque Armstrong left on the moon that stated, “We came in peace for all mankind”. The choice of Tang points to the drink-maker’s strong marketing campaign around the lunar missions.

The variety of sizes for the braille marks points to Galileo's observation that gravity is indifferent to the size of an object. The choice of braille was used to point to our collective blindness towards many of the world's problems , and the fact Galileo went blind late in life.

This work is a cry for environmentalism referencing the artwork of Damien Hirst. Hirstʼs oeuvre includes mass-produced series of “spot” and “spin” paintings – on which surfaces are covered with dots or spinning splatters of paint in a factory environment – as well as preserved animals suspended in glass cases. One such piece, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) contains a thirteen-foot tiger shark, drawing comparisons to the shark-like, predatory nature of the art market.

Soup plays on the idea of Hirstʼs approach by reprising his dot motif, with each of the dots here individually printed with vibrant colors that reference his  “spot” and “spin” paintings. The 1,000 dots in this piece represent the number of sharks killed every 5 minutes, and together compose Braille symbols that spell out the names of dozens of sharks. In the center of the work is a tank with the word “shark” begging the viewer not to turn a blind eye to the ongoing devastation to wildlife worldwide.

Upper Bound  addresses whether there is a natural ceiling for the VIX.  From the late 90s up until the 2008 crash, the VIX never spiked above the 40s.  In October 2008, it shocked many as it almost hit 90.  While their is no theoretical upper bound for the VIX, practically speaking could the VIX exceed 100 or even higher?  Germany gives us an example that shows the VIX in theory could spike well above this level.  In fall 1923 with hyperinflation at it height the once powerful German had a stock market (a hypothetical DAX) whose volatility probably reached 4-digits (by some measurements).