” ‘Er bum looks even smaller in gold… ”

In what is surely the single event that turned even the most aesthetically impaired men of the world into modern art lovers, renowned British sculptor MARC QUINN unveiled his solid gold KATE MOSS sculpture at the BRITISH MUSEUM this weekend as part of the “Statuephilia” show that also included works by DAMIEN HIRST, RON MUECK, NOBLE & WEBSTER, and ANTONY GORMLEY. Titled “Siren,” the piece is made of solid 18K gold and cost nearly $3 million USD to fabricate, with nearly all the cost going to the price of gold. It is the largest solid gold sculpture made since ancient Egypt. At 11o pounds, the piece weighs about the same as its waifish subject and is currently on display in the museum’s Nereid Gallery among statues of Greek goddesses including—fittingly—Aphrodite. Said Quinn at the Statue’s unveiling this weekend, “The sculpture is really about whether we make images or they make us. It’s about trying to live up to impossible dreams and immortality … For Kate, she thinks it lifts into her into a mythical level. I think she very much loved it because she understands the difference between her image and her self.” The piece remains on display at the museum through the end of the year and Quinn expects the sculpture to fetch in the neighborhood of $20 million USD when it’s finally sold following the exhibition. Reports of Pete Doherty camping out in front of the sculpture and staring longingly from morning till nite since the opening have been confirmed. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

And you thought London was under surveillance…

French photographer/street artist JR, best known for his technique of photographing inhabitants of an area & pasting the resulting imagery up on grand scale around the community, has taken to the favelas of RIO DE JANEIRO in a grand project to honor the female residents of one of the world’s biggest slums in a hillside installation called “28 Millimetres: Women”. Following in the footsteps of his recent large-scale installation in Spain, JR has truly outdone himself with this massive paste up, the scope of which is simply stunning. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Waterboarding: It’s still more fun than eating 200 Nathan’s hot dogs in 5 minutes…

As we previously reported, New York artist STEVE POWERS (aka: ESPO) has been working on a torture-themed art project for a while now and in conjunction with CREATIVE TIME as part of its national public art initiative “Democracy in America: The National Campaign,” he’s just opened the Guantanamo Bay-themed “Waterboard Thrill Ride” on Coney Island in the shadow of the legendary Cyclone roller coaster and Nathan’s hot dog stand in an empty storefront on West 12th Street. When a dollar is fed into a machine standing outside Powers’ mock jail cell installation featuring paintings by the artist inside and out, viewers can climb a short flight of steps to peer through cell bars and view an animatronic torture scene of a hooded jailer pouring water down the throat of an orange jumpsuit wearing Gitmo detainee. In creating the exhibit, Powers hopes to use the inherent spectacle of Coney Island to broaden public awareness of and spark debate about a human rights issue that has received minimal weight in the public sphere. Says John Sifton of Human Rights Watch, “In the process of waterboarding, a person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law.” As host of the project, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak explains, “Humor has long been a strategy for speaking the unspeakable, and it is vital that we as a nation begin a dialogue about the implications of waterboarding. There has been a critical shift in American ideology, where previously it was unthinkable that the United States would condone the practice of torture.” Powers himself puts it more ironically: “It’s about time that this uniquely American ritual of intense water horror, a practice long reserved for New England witches and Al-Qaida brass, was made available to the people. This project will give some everyday New Yorkers the chance to experience—for a few brief, bone-chilling seconds—all the thrills of being a prisoner under interrogation at Guantanamo Bay. And the installation is fun for the whole family.” In mid-August, Powers will produce a private performance in an undisclosed location in Coney Island, wherein he and several lawyers will volunteer to be waterboarded by a trained professional. “Is waterboarding torture? No, say the administration and the courts. Yes, say human rights activists,” Powers says. “Now actual waterboard riders will reveal, in their own words, exactly what a taste of death by water feels like.” Meanwhile, the exhibit will remain on public view until late August when the show is reinstalled in the Democracy in America Convergence Center at the Park Avenue Armory from September 21 to 27. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Mr Supine’s free art floatie steers away from New Jersey…

NYC’s (well, Brooklyn, actually) chartreuse-loving street anonymous art phantom JUDITH SUPINE has reprised his last summer’s attack on the vaguely toxic East River by sending yet another color-screaming art floatie out to sea this weekend. No word yet as to whose hands the diving beauties ultimately ended up in, but one thing’s for sure, it’ll probably turn up in some high-end street art auction sooner than later. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Espo takes to the streets to enlist some willing waterboard soldiers…

Since Guantanamo Bay isn’t technically accepting any new prisoners, our man ESPO aka: STEVE POWERS is ready to set up a little WATERBOARDING torture experiment—in conjunction with NYC-based arts organization CREATIVE TIME—of his own and he needs you or your lawyer to sign up now. READ ON: Read the rest of this entry »

Unfortunately, no, this is not a new Butthole Surfers video…

When someone says the words “Mermaid Parade” one can’t help but imagine a street full of hot, young, half-naked women in forgivably bad costumes. Unfortunately, such was not really the case at the costumed perp walk that was last month’s 2008 CONEY ISLAND MERMAID PARADE which instead looked like the movie version of a Vice “Don’t” column. Featuring a staggering array of art-damaged revelers in various states of creative undress, the annual event once again proved to be one of the best people watching processions of all time. Technically the country’s largest art parade, the parade is actually an homage to Coney Island’s long forgotten Mardi Gras that was staged religiously from 1903 to 1954 and invites a stunning array of like-minded exhibitionists to converge on the boardwalk to display their pound(s) of painted flesh. Pour yourself a drink, smear some Vaseline on your computer screen and HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

Banksy’s buffer will be working overtime tonite… 

Walking through the abandoned Eurostar terminal-turned impromptu stencil art museum that is BANKSY’s infamous “Cans Festival,” it seems that the Bristol bad boy has his share of detractors after all. Just two months after the show’s debut (it’s scheduled to remain on public display until Fall) it seems the local graffiti droogs have made their feelings regarding England’s prince of street art known in the form of ubiquitous tagging throughout the tunnel. Do we smell an old school graffiti war brewing? No chance, that would be way too “street.” The Queen will probably have her royal art conservators on the job restoring the place by week’s end. HAVE A LOOK: Read the rest of this entry »

The Brooklyn Bridge’s biggest leak to date…

Normally, New York City residents yearning for a glimpse of a waterfall had to head upstate to Niagara. Now the trip is as close as the New York Harbor. As of this morning, four massive waterfalls created by 41-year-old Danish-Icelandic artist OLAFUR ELIASSON went into commission there, churning 35,000 gallons of East River water per minute over their manmade precipices. Following in the footsteps of conceptual art grandstander Christo who draped Central Park in yellow fabric in 2005, Eliasson sought to create an elaborate spectacle with the installation, officially titled “New York City Waterfalls,” and in the eyes of NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, it’s bound to be a cash cow: “We estimate that the project will generate more than $55 million in economic activity for our city,” he announced this morning at the falls’ dedication ceremony. At a cost of $15.5 million (the majority of funds came from private donors, the city ponied up $2 million), that’s not a bad return on investment if ol’ Bloomie is correct in his estimation that “tens of thousands” of tourists will flock to the city to get a glimpse of Eliasson’s aesthetically spare constructions (water’s always beautiful, but the mechanisms resemble little more than elaborate scaffolding).

The waterfalls are at Pier 35 in Manhattan, near South and Rutgers Streets north of the Manhattan Bridge; at the Brooklyn tower of the Brooklyn Bridge; Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn, west of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; and on the north shore of Governors Island. They will be turned on every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when they will be activated at 9 a.m. After sunset, the waterfalls will be lighted by light-emitting diodes. To facilitate viewing, a temporary park has been specially created on Pier 1 (the site of the future Brooklyn Bridge Park). In a nod to current gas prices, the city’s Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Public Art Fund, has also created a bike route around the project.

For the definitive story, check out the NYTimes, or NY Mag…

The man in the water…