Nine Years Since the Crisis is a series of 9 panels that represent the trading activity in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. 

September 29, 2008 marked the largest single-day loss in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average up to that point.  Citing the nearly $8 trillion  plummet in cumulative value, unemployment sky rocketed across the United States, home values sharply declined, and retirement accounts were decimated. This epoch in American history is commonly referred to as The Great Recession. While it is believed that the US economy has largely recovered, the Great Recession persists in the public consciousness as a cautionary tale against irresponsible and unchecked lending. Josh Harlan’s Nine Years Since the Crisis interrogates the enduring effects of this period of economic vulnerability on the nine years following the recession.

Referencing the S&P 500 Index “heat map,” Harlan renders raw data for the years of 2010-2018 into works of geometric abstraction inspired by the minimalist aesthetic of predecessors such as Josef Albers and Brice Marden.  Harlan’s body of work belies the intent of traditional schools of minimalism by creating works that, beyond their abstract aesthetic, point to complex sociological, economic, and technological phenomena.  

Additional information on the series is available at this link.