Daniel Peltz

Unrealized Gain/Loss

Daniel’s Prospectus contribution, Unrealized Gain/Loss, comes out of a cross-cultural exploration of notions of retirement and pension systems.

About the project he writes:

“In a spiritual society, one spends this life preparing for the afterlife; in a secular society, one spends this life preparing for the after-work life. But how do we insure our well being in the after-work life? What to do with all this unrealized gain and loss?

“The pair of sarongs in the image to the left was produced through an intensive collaboration with my TIAA-CREF retirement portfolio during a residency in Indonesia. Composed of a symbolic system derived from charts documenting the performance of my assets and allocations, each motif that makes up these cloths is a modification of an existing one in Indonesian batik design. The sarong pair is accompanied by a set of porcelain Unrealized Gain/Loss vessels for use in the making of after-work life offerings.

“The success of these methods of connecting with my retirement portfolio led to the development of a series of human resources workshops for investment professionals. The workshops used percussive techniques to help employees, of a Rhode Island based wealth management company, connect to the experience of gain and loss within their portfolios.  The triptych video, a client of the firm, offers a glimpse into this process.”

Unrealized Gain/Loss culminated in Spring 2013 with the launch of a new public performance form, a quarterly investors’ drum circle, that invited citizen investors to use publicly displayed market data to respond to fluctuations in their after-work life prospects.

A Client of the Firm triptych (click on image to view video)

Conference Room, Providence, RI, site of Investors’ Drum Circle workshop, 1-14-13. Photo: Shirin Adhami

Daniel Peltz is an artist and educator based in Providence, RI. Through his public projects and media installations, Peltz explores social systems, attempting to provoke ruptures in the socio/cultural fabric through which new ways of being may emerge and be considered. To accomplish these goals, he uses a range of intervention, ethnographic and performance strategies. His projects often take the form of existing social structures [instant messaging protocols, karaoke bars, political campaigns, parking regulations, etc.] to directly engage non-art audiences in the language of critical art practice.

His recent works have been supported by a practice-based research grant from the Fulbright Association and residencies at Yaddo (USA); the Helsinki International Artist Program (Finland); the International Artists Studio Program in Sweden; Artspace (Australia); and the Cemeti Art House (Indonesia).  Peltz is an Associate Professor of Film/Animation/Video at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.