The front page of the first edition of the Wall Street Journal being held up by Hyperallergic’s Editorial Assistant, Liza Eliano. (photo by the author and originally published on Hyperallergic LABS)
Liza Eliano and I stopped by Occupy Wall Street yesterday and we picked up a copy of the first edition of the Occupied Wall Street Journal. A four-page broadsheet, the back had a funny map marking that made us laugh out loud. “Art / Signs” are marked with a ♥ but Abstract Expressionist sculptor Mark di Suvero‘s “Joie de Vivre” (2006?) is marked with the term “Weird Red Thing” — LOL!
“Joie de Vivre” is a “Weird Red Thing” on the Occupied Wall Street Journal’s map.
When the sculpture was unveiled in 2006, di Suvero told the Downtown Express:
“It’s not an X,” the sculptor no less genially- explosively corrected this writer during a telephone interview. “There’s no X in it! It’s a series of tetrahedrons that are open at the ends. Yes, of course I call it a piece. A sculpture. Yes, of course it can be taken apart and put back together. That’s what’s unique about these pieces [his life’s work]: They can be disassembled.”
A view of Mark di Suvero’s “Joie de Vivre” looking down Cedar Street toward Broadway.
The newspaper goes on to explain how it came to settle in the park:
The piece, the sculpture, “Joie de Vivre,” was given to New York City “by Aggie Gund and her husband” – Agnes Gund, president of the Museum of Modern Art, and lawyer husband Daniel Shapiro. Its earlier Manhattan location had been in Tribeca at the rotary of the Holland Tunnel.
Now, we want to know what you think about the public art work. Have your say in the poll below.
They don’t say it’s ugly, they say it’s “weird.” That’s good right!
it’s useful, humorous, irreverent, witty and generates cultural discourse in a most democratic way. A classic expression of joi de vivre, one might say. Brilliant. <3
They aren’t calling it ugly; that’s your interpretation of “weird thing.” Weird things are awesome! I am an artist and I like it when people call my work “weird.” Weird can be a compliment.
i think joie de vivre should actually be the symbol of the occupation/revolution. well, at least a graphic representation of it. and not the one they use in the paper. how they get a dot with an x through it i’ll never know. i was thinking something more along the lines of two orange arrows pointing – one up and one down – into each other. maybe with a white circle around the area of intersection. on a purple background. actually, now that i think about it, theirs isn’t that far off from my idea. they’re just missing the vertical axis. i also think we should rename it “consensus.” i think di suvero would approve. 🙂