Look at Those Low Rates , 2025
Relief print
65 5/8 x 46 1/2"
Copyright The Artist
All matrixes are inked relief and printed on an etching press. Each print went through the press 8-14 times and had 14-20 colors with more colors achieved through layering and...
All matrixes are inked relief and printed on an etching press. Each print went through the press 8-14 times and had 14-20 colors with more colors achieved through layering and transparency. Fields of color are initially rolled onto a large magnetic matrix and then printed. Each shape, mark, figure, mountain, etc. layered on top is an individual magnetic relief plate that is hand inked before each trip through the press. Sometimes textures created by Nina are rolled onto the relief plates (the fish for example).
Look at Those Low Rates is a masterstroke of satire—a piece that weaponizes the language of advertising and spectacle to underscore the absurdity of survival under capitalism, climate collapse, and environmental racism. The title, pulled from the infamous Eagle Man insurance commercials, local to theAmerican midwest, conjures a surreal visual memory: a man in a bald eagle costume squats beside a car, delivering the line, “Look at those low rates!” in a strange hybrid of authority and camp.In this work, the eagle appears again—deadpan, anthropomorphic, perched on a tree stump—surveying the landscape as if it still represents freedom, as if everything behind it isn’t already burning. The scene is apocalyptic but graphic, stylized like a billboard: oil rigs, fire, pyramids, raised hands, and a scorched figure sinking into a body of water. This is a propaganda poster for collapse, except the pitch isn’t coverage—it’s complicity. The phrase, “look at those low rates” becomes cruelly ironic. Who gets the low rate? Who pays the real cost?This piece pokes directly at the way capitalism markets safety and protection to those who it has already abandoned. It connects to other works in the exhibition that depict contaminated recreational spaces, mundane gestures in toxic conditions, and moments of futile cheer in the face of systemic breakdown.Look at Those Low Rates prods at the aesthetics of corporate reassurance pasted over irreversible harm.The bald eagle—symbol of empire, insurance, and freedom—stands still. Behind it, the world is on fire.But hey, at least the rate is low.
Look at Those Low Rates is a masterstroke of satire—a piece that weaponizes the language of advertising and spectacle to underscore the absurdity of survival under capitalism, climate collapse, and environmental racism. The title, pulled from the infamous Eagle Man insurance commercials, local to theAmerican midwest, conjures a surreal visual memory: a man in a bald eagle costume squats beside a car, delivering the line, “Look at those low rates!” in a strange hybrid of authority and camp.In this work, the eagle appears again—deadpan, anthropomorphic, perched on a tree stump—surveying the landscape as if it still represents freedom, as if everything behind it isn’t already burning. The scene is apocalyptic but graphic, stylized like a billboard: oil rigs, fire, pyramids, raised hands, and a scorched figure sinking into a body of water. This is a propaganda poster for collapse, except the pitch isn’t coverage—it’s complicity. The phrase, “look at those low rates” becomes cruelly ironic. Who gets the low rate? Who pays the real cost?This piece pokes directly at the way capitalism markets safety and protection to those who it has already abandoned. It connects to other works in the exhibition that depict contaminated recreational spaces, mundane gestures in toxic conditions, and moments of futile cheer in the face of systemic breakdown.Look at Those Low Rates prods at the aesthetics of corporate reassurance pasted over irreversible harm.The bald eagle—symbol of empire, insurance, and freedom—stands still. Behind it, the world is on fire.But hey, at least the rate is low.