Zefrey
Throwell is
an artist
living and
working in
New York
City. His
aim is “honest
communication”
and he
works with
video, radio,
paint and...
people. He
explores the
“connecting
points of
social
discourse”. He
became famous
thanks to
his project
“Ocularpation :
Wall Street”,
a critique
of Wall
Street, which
featured in
the New York
Times and
on various TV channels (and foreshadowed the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations).
"I'll
Raise You One...” is Throwell's latest idea. He says : “I will be
playing a seven day long continuous strip poker game in the windows
of Art In General. Not to be missed!” Each day for a week, from
10:30am-6:00pm, seven players will gather around a white table in the
storefront Project Space of Art In General to gamble away their
clothes. At the end of each round, the players will get dressed and
begin again, creating a meditative repetitious action that continues
over the course of a workday.
In
a world
where money
has supreme
importance and
all aspects of
life are
mere commodities,
“I’ll
Raise You
One…” is
a project
where clothing,
charisma and
bluff are
the only
currency. Using
the language
of small
stakes capitalism
mixed with
America’s
favorite gambling
pass-time,
and the
flirtatious
teenage party
game of
strip poker,
Throwell draws
a fluxus
parallel between
what we
consider winning
and losing
in the
world today.
The
photo above
was taken
during the artistic strip poker
game "happening". The
players seem
to be having
fun and
throw their
clothes in a
way that
makes us
think they
don’t
care about
clothes, that
all of
that is
superficial. The
real sense
of this
picture, we think,
is that
people don’t
care about
what they
win or
lose today.
The photo above is a photo of a municipal employee. He does his job in front
of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, but totally nude as part of the “Ocularpation :
Wall Street” artistic "happening" bt Throwell. Dozens of people stripped on Wall Street, for no apparent reason, during the course of their working day. The fact that
this picture was taken at this place denounces capitalism and the too
big importance of money today in our societies. Ordinary people have literally and symbolically had their clothes taken off their backs...
We
think Zefrey
Throwell might
be a crank,
but he
uses his
art for the
purpose of
sharing his
political ideas,
and to
our mind,
that's a good
thing. His slogans are pretty
catchy and
the way
he stages
his work is
really amazing,
and even
if it
may shock
some people,
at least
it draws
people’s
attention to a worthy cause. We
don’t
know if this kind of art would
be well
accepted here,
in France,
but… why
not ?!
No comments:
Post a Comment