Don’t Take The Bait: NYC Black Woman ‘Monument’ Only Up For 1 Month
A recent temporary art exhibit in Times Square is no doubt designed to elicit a response from you.
A group known as Times Square Arts unveiled “Grounded in the Stars,” a 12-foot-tall bronze figure with a portly “marginalized body” crafted by race-focused artist Thomas J Price. It’s of a fictional black woman, a press release from the organization said, designed to offset the statues of two historic white male figures in the vicinity.
Other current installations in Times Square include a giant hot dog and a meandering path designed to help walkers “meditate.”
The black woman statue’s very presence is designed to “confront … preconceived notions of identity and representation. With Grounded in the Stars, Price reimagines both the monument and monumentality in Times Square, one of the world’s most iconic public spaces,” the release stated.
“Confront.” So you’re supposed to say “Hey, that’s not what a monument is for!”
You’re also supposed to say …
Or …
Yet it’s not a monument at all. It’s a temporary art piece with a permit for one month, where many such proactive pieces have been on display. And get ready: the art group has a contract to take over Times Square’s billboards at midnight and display images of other “marginalized bodies.” All, of course, not designed to inspire or comment, but “disrupt.”
“[The sculpture] disrupts traditional ideas around what defines a triumphant figure and challenges who should be rendered immortal through monumentalization,” the press release stated (emphasis ours on the brand-new word).
Disrupting what remains the question. On the northern triangle of Times Square is an area known as Duffy Square. The square has two statues, which are referenced by the art group in the press release. One is a bronze statue of Chaplain Francis P. Duffy of New York’s “Fighting 69th” Army Infantry Regiment who served in Western France during World War I, for whom the square is named, sculpted by Charles Keck.
The other statue depicts composer, playwright, producer and actor George M. Cohan — the man who basically gave us Broadway — by sculptor Georg J. Lober.
“In other words, the wokes decided it was time for the Times Square white men to give up some of their turf to a big black woman who wants to speak to a manager NOW,” a commentary on Outkick opined. (We also used their photo, by the way.)
We’ll stop there before we get in trouble — which may also be the goal of the temporary installation, come to think of it.
