All posts tagged: Nelson Saiers

Nelson Saiers, Racial Equality, and “More Is Needed”

Nelson Saiers, Racial Equality, and “More Is Needed”

As we step monthly into the Greater Depression and hope for greater understanding of the mathematical trickery that is leading us there (with or without Covid), we’re curious to see what former hedge fund manager and now installation artist savant Nelson Saiers is creating.

Nelson Saiers. “More Is Needed”. Washington, DC. (photo © Nelson Saiers)

Formerly working with HG Contemporary and its owner Philippe Hoerle-Guggenheim, who has artists like Retna and Kobra in his roster, Saiers is a self-directed representational artist whose circuitous route to truths frequently follow a mathematical one. Right now he’s not talking about quantitative easing or trillions of US debt, he’s talking about social inquality of a different nature: the paucity of black and brown-skin people in the fields of technology and some of the underlying structural foundations that aid and abet the systems.

He shows us his latest installation in front of the Lincoln Memorial and describes how it came together and the significance of his additions and subtractions.

“I’m doing an on and off multi-week installation in front of the Lincoln Memorial in DC.  The exhibit uses math to argue for the increased inclusion and just representation of African-Americans in the world of technology (and the further advancement of their civil rights and equality).”

Nelson Saiers. “More Is Needed”. Washington, DC. (photo © Nelson Saiers)

More is Needed 

“This piece applies mathematics to argue for the fair representation of African-Americans in our tech businesses and throughout society. The math symbols on the computer printer paper hint at an important theorem from topology called Brown Representation, which has been added, but it is incomplete (topology is a modern form of geometry).

Nelson Saiers. “More Is Needed”. Washington, DC. (photo © Nelson Saiers)

In essence, this argues that African-Americans should be fully represented in technology companies and other thriving industries. The incomplete list of math conditions is symbolic of the fact that while some basic strides have been made in this regard (for example, Brown v. Board of Education), much more is needed. The Domino box, which has been X’d out, points to the sugar industry (and its role in slavery), and the arrow directed at the printer paper references the migration of African-Americans from one category to another: poorly treated slaves to successful leaders.

The fact that some of the symbols were crossed out and then replaced (e.g., the “for all” symbol – upside down capital “A”) alludes to the tragic hiccups on the road to the achievement of these basic civil rights. Finally, the work’s raw cotton canvas background points to slavery and the centrality of cotton to its vile practice, a symbolic gesture to describe where our society started (and a fact that should not be “whitewashed”). Among many other mathematical motivations nestled in this piece, there is the word ‘monochromatic’ (one color) crossed out and replaced with the word ‘spectrum’ (range of color). While there are clear interpretations of this in the context of social justice, in math, a spectrum is also intimately tied to Brown Representability, expanding this metaphor and the important range of work we must achieve as a society to move forward.”

Nelson Saiers. “More Is Needed”. Washington, DC. (photo © Nelson Saiers)
Read more
50% Off Everything at MET Museum! Nelson Saiers Commercializes the View

50% Off Everything at MET Museum! Nelson Saiers Commercializes the View

Not to say that folks punching each other over a flatscreen are philistines, but you have to wonder if they’d be better off gazing upon the ravishing and lucid Delacroix exhibition instead of unreality TV.

If you want mystery or to trace the lines of power, corruption, and examine who’s pulling the strings behind so-called “Western democracies”, you might want to skip up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy exhibition.

” . . . as much a reckoning with our past as a road map of our current era . . . “Surface

Nelson Saiers. MET Intervention. (photo © Jazmin G)

Alas, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, artist Nelson Saiers wondered why there weren’t many people hanging out in the museum’s gracious galleries to gaze upon masterpieces of the world – and thought he would install SALE signs that might draw crowds away from Best Buy.

“If you went to the Met as it opened on Friday many of the galleries were essentially empty, so you could spend some quality one on one time with some of the greatest works of art ever created,” says Saiers, who has been experimenting with “statement” Street Art installations like putting a large inflateable “Bitcoin Rat” on Wall Street in front of the Federal Reserve building last month.

Nelson Saiers. MET Intervention. (photo © Jazmin G)

Whether many people saw the “Black Friday Special 50% Off” signs he placed around the museum or not (he estimated they each lasted about a half hour) he is still glad to have his critique on societal priorities.

“It was meant to be a bit of a satirical commentary on the non-stop commercialism we experience daily,” says the Hedge Fund manager turned artist, posing wittily or scurrying in some of the photos in the empty galleries with romantic artists like Ernest Meissonier, Paul Cezanne and his wife.

“Would you prefer to spend time with some of the most significant culture ever produced or shop?” Saier asks. “In the end, it was meant to be a humorous commentary, and hopefully, it was entertaining for the few who did see it.”

Nelson Saiers. MET Intervention. (photo © Jazmin G)

Nelson Saiers. MET Intervention. (photo © Jazmin G)

Nelson Saiers. MET Intervention. (photo © Jazmin G)

Read more