In Inflation (or: The Dollar Surfer), Mona von Wittlage stages a striking allegory of contemporary financial capitalism. A young surfer rides a monumental wave — yet the ocean beneath him is not water but a vortex of dollar bills. Banknotes fold and accumulate into a spiralling surge, transforming the abstract mechanisms of the global economy into a force of nature.

The composition evokes both exhilaration and danger. The surfer appears perfectly balanced, navigating the accelerating wave with confidence and skill. But the wave itself resembles a monetary maelstrom, a system propelled by its own momentum — speculation feeding speculation, currency multiplying in a self-referential loop. The spiral suggests the vertigo of inflation: an economy that grows larger while its real foundations become increasingly fragile.

The figure of the surfer introduces a clear political dimension. He is not a victim of the system but its beneficiary — the one who knows how to ride the wave. In this sense, the surfer embodies the contemporary “profiteur” of inflation: the investor, the speculator, the market winner who transforms volatility into opportunity. While inflation erodes purchasing power for many, it can become a field of profit for those capable of navigating its turbulent dynamics.

Von Wittlage intensifies this tension through her choice of materials. The surrounding world is drawn in graphite, a cool monochrome landscape of circulating banknotes. The surfer’s body, however, is rendered in blood. The vivid red of the pigment introduces the presence of the living body — fragile, mortal, and profoundly human — within a system otherwise defined by abstraction. This contrast between blood and graphite lies at the heart of the work. Money circulates endlessly, detached from physical reality, while the human body remains the ultimate site where economic forces are experienced.

In Inflation (or: The Dollar Surfer), surfing becomes a metaphor for financial mastery. The surfer glides effortlessly along the crest of the inflationary wave — not resisting it, but exploiting it. Beneath the apparent grace of the movement lies a disturbing truth: what appears as balance for one may represent turbulence for many others.

Von Wittlage’s drawing thus exposes the paradox of modern economies. Inflation is often described as a collective crisis. Yet within its spiralling currents, there are always those who learn how to ride the wave.