During the 1980s and 90s Komar and Melamid’s repertoire expanded to include conceptual projects involving music, monumental sculpture, performance and even teaching elephants in Thailand to paint, often accompanied by publications to disseminate their ideas. Symbols of the Big Bang, referencing the very moment of the creation of the universe, was the duo’s last major collaborative project in 2001–3, exhibited first in New York and then in Moscow. Here, the artists used a range of abstract, ancient and geometric symbols in a series of drawings and paintings, including the swastika, square and Star of David, to explore links between mysticism and science, creating ‘The visual image of the beginning of our universe and our world’. Some of the works were intended to form the basis for designs for stained-glass, which the Russian authorities refused to allow. This drawing, as with the whole series, is executed like a mathematical problem on graph paper, It overlays a sun-like element radiating outwards in concentric circles, with a sinister, brooding block-like form. On closer inspection, the surface is dappled with Hebrew letters, creating a dynamic surface suggesting the explosive moment of creation. Big Bang was the winning entry in the Painting and Drawing Section of Ben Uri’s International Jewish Artist of the Year Award in 2004.