Nothingness and waiting as existential stories are misplaced notions in the world of poverty and hunger. What is the negotiation between deficiencies born from a world where greed has replaced culture?

In the time of nothing, individuals invent clever ways to survive. Scott Boberg’s painting series, Hobo Signs (Nos. 1-50) presents the visual language used by transients during the depression in the U.S. The “hobo symbols” marked on residences and buildings emphasize the notion of the haves and the have nots. In this situation, the person in the place of nothing is reliant on a symbol to provide food, work or protection from harm.

Buddhism strives for a centered approach and at the center is nothing from which everything emerges. Within Shingon Buddhism, A-ji meditation, as a symbolization toward the pure mind, seeks to experience reality as the inseparable components, being and emptiness.

Sheila Pinkel's series, Incarceration, addresses several aspects about the Prison Industrial Complex, the for-profit system that  legalizes slave-labor and requires an abundance of inmates to add to their labor force.  While “hobos” are circumstantially in a place of nothing and monks choose to be in a place of nothing, prisoners are forced into a position of nothingness.