Artists To Stage Literal Meltdown Of American Economy
On October 29, the economy will melt down. Not the general economy per se, but a 5 foot tall, 15 feet wide, 1,500 pound ice sculpture of the word "ECONOMY" in Manhattan's Foley Square, relatively near to Wall Street. Artists Ligorano/Reese say, "this sculpture metaphorically captures the results of unregulated markets on the U.S. economy." October 29 also happens to be the 79th anniversary of Black Tuesday.
Main Street Meltdown - New Ice Sculpture - Oct. 29, 2008 [voices4demoracy]
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This will surely bring about the much needed change on Wall St.
Oh, that's clever. What next, someone driving a "stock car" into a wall to symbolize the crash of the stock market?
I think the debt clock is more pointed, by far, whether or not you'd classify it as art.
Subtle and nuanced, this is not.
How about I come to Wall Street instead with a giant plastic balloon that says "INFLATION" on it and attach it to a hydrogen source and continuously pump it up until it explodes in a fiery fireball of DOOM?
In Amerika the banks now hold up you
Yeah, this is not really near Wall ST, Foley Square is more like the judicial/courthouse district. That is the New York State Supreme Court House behind the sculpture.
So the location makes zero sense.
Something interesting is that the Supreme Court in NY is the lower court. The higher court is the Court of Appeals. So "Supreme Court" is a misnomer and it should be called the "Inferior Court".
On a day like today, where temps will likely not get out of the 50s, it'll be a much slower meltdown than happened in real life.
Let's finish the quote:
Artists Ligorano/Reese say, "this sculpture metaphorically captures the results of unregulated markets on the U.S. economy..." while the unregulated art market embraces exploiting global panic.
Hurrah! for banal public exhibitions!
"this sculpture metaphorically captures the results of unregulated markets on the U.S. economy."
Unregulated? Utter bullshiat.
$10 bet that some idiot is going to lick the sculpture and get stuck to it.
Unregulated? Because we all know that planned economies never have this kind of problem and flourish like flowers in Spring time!
To make a realistic enactment, we need to have a bunch of actors playing greedy executives melting that sculpture with a flamethrower.
After the show is over, the onlookers have to be running for their lives. The execs are literally coming after them with their flamethrower! Melting the economy wasn't enough apparently!
@Triborough: Even more embarrassing, this would be clever, in say, summer weather. But it's starting to get cold. in 8 days time, it could be really cold. Possibly. Look, I just think that a chilly day and an ice sculpture designed to melt in order to demonstrate it's meaning is kind of, well. Dumb.
Last night, I heard Bush say something confusing on the radio re: the economy. Namely, "It took a long time to thaw, people will see that it'll also take a long time to unthaw" (I'm paraphrasing).
Not exactly tied to the pic, but is he saying that the economy will ideally "freeze," because that's all I can interpret this as meaning.
That's the only reason that I'm going to drop by this thing on my lunch break. *fingers crossed*
Ice...? ICE???!!! It's transparent (unlike our backasswards failed regulatory system). It's fat free (unlike our backasswards failing economy). It won't leave a mess when it's finished melting. No, if you're going to melt something in proverbial effigy...you should use:
Ice Cream
Funny, for a second I thought the word in ice said "Trite" instead of "Economy".
@jantonbusch: I think the debt clock just exploded and the pieces are raining down as we speak. They just didn't have a dial big enough to accommodate a $760B bailout after a $150B intervention in the mortgage market.
At least the meltdown can be used to water the flower beds...
@TVarmy: I'll have you know that Bush did not invent the word 'unthaw.' See this 2-week old CBS news story: Fed Takes Radical Step To Unthaw Credit.
...5 foot tall, 15 feet wide, 1,500 pound ice sculpture of the word "ECONOMY"...
With my stock portfolio in the toilet right now and the threat of a restricted job market, I don't think I could justify spending money to construct a massive ice sculpture only to illustrate the obvious. Glad to see that some people are having a bit more luck than me.
Sounds to me like the person who crafted this just wants attention. Also sounds like the person is crossing his fingers in hopes some major newspaper will pick up on it so that when some gumshoe reporter asks for an interview, there will hopefully be an opportunity to inject some politically motivated opinion. This idea is so transparent...
@jantonbusch: Your idea of incorporating the debt clock into performance art is seriously cool.
... Just don't open the door to the "What is art?" debate. Please!
Nonono, the metaphor will only be complete when they place the ECONOMY ice sculpture on top of a giant power-brick that only heats up as power is drawn from it. Then plug in a bunch of electric fans and point them at the ice.
@Spiny Norman: My understanding was that they got rid of the "$" (dollar sign) to accommodate the extra digit needed.
"On October 29, the economy will melt down. Not the general economy per se"
But not entirely out of the question...
Very useful. I know when I have a financial issue, the first thing I do is go and find an art major and ask them what they'd do about it.
Then I do the opposite, of course...
The real problem is that there's currently a huge sculpture where that ice is supposed to go!
Ok, I was there, where was the sculpture?
Foley Square isn't really near Wall Street. Well it is close to Wall Street than say, Marcy Avenue.