Pope.L, “The Great White Way” (2009–09), 22 miles. 9 years, 1 street, performance (© Pope.L Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York)
In a little less than two months, you may see a squadron of New Yorkers slithering through the triumphal arch of Washington Square Park on their hands and knees.
Prepare yourself, because Pope.L is coming to town.
The legendary performance artist will be showing in major museums in New York come fall (like the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art). Alongside those exhibitions, the 64-year-old artist is planning his largest group performance yet. He’s asking for more than 100 volunteers to participate in “Conquest,” a crawl across the city that begins in the West Village and travel east toward Washington Square Park before turning north for a finish at Union Square. Situated in some of Manhattan’s most historic neighborhoods, the route draws attention to power dynamics, privilege, and cultural representation in the city.
Public Art Fund, a local nonprofit, will present the performance on Saturday, September 21.
“The crawl is an absurd journey to an uncertain goal,” Pope.L said in a statement. “The raw physical struggle of the journey suggests homelessness and a loss of hope and status but takes place in a tree-lined upscale environment where wealth, speed, and verticality are king
For nearly five decades, the New Jersey native has been synonymous with endurance-based performances that comment on the socioeconomic distinctions that classifying Americans, especially when it comes to living while Black. Over the years, his “crawls” have distinguished themselves by length and theme. “Tompkins Square Crawl” (1991) featured the artist dressed in a business suit crawling through the park’s gutters. Arguably his most important piece, “The Great White Way,” involved a Superman outfit, a skateboard, and a 22-mile stretch along Broadway from the Statue of Liberty to the Bronx.
“Working at the margins of the mainstream art world for decades, Pope.L has created a profound and compelling body of work unlike that of any of his contemporaries,” said Public Art Fund’s director and chief curator Nicholas Baume. “As an epic group undertaking, Conquest promises to extend the richly layered metaphors around race, power and vulnerability in his solo crawls to further explore diversity, collectivity, struggle and achievement.”
The open call for participants will be made later this month; volunteers will be selected by Pope.L to reflect the city’s diversity with regards to age, race, and ability, and to include people from different professions and socioeconomic backgrounds, from all five boroughs and. Precise details for the unpaid volunteer opportunity will be released later this week. The performance will be free to viewers.
“What sort of progress is this performance?” asks Pope.L in the announcement. “Is it a comedy of errors or business as usual or a critical mirror held up to a great American past-time called success?”
The Latest
Bobby Wilson Combats Indigenous Stereotypes Through Humor
The artist-performer’s career undulates, ever so gracefully, across multiple mediums and registers of generational pain, healing laughter, and Indigenous joy.
Rare 19th-Century Silhouette Album’s Secrets Unlocked
Traveling portrait artist William Bache’s album depicts famous figures like Thomas Jefferson as well as people whose identity was previously unknown.
Nevada Museum of Art Presents Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity
For the first time in nearly 60 years, the innovative yet under-recognized artist is the subject of a retrospective exhibition. On view in Reno, Nevada.
Artists Show What They Can Do With a Google Phone’s Camera
Works by 20 photographers are now on view in Manhattan for the seventh season and 100th project coming out of the Google Creator Labs.
Met Museum Kicked Me Out for Praying to My Ancestral Gods
My danced prayer to looted Cambodian antiquities was too much for the New York museum.
The Public Theater in NYC Presents Plays for the Plague Year
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’s theatrical concert chronicles the 2020 lockdown and the hope and perseverance that emerged from it.
A Museum Guard’s Ode to the Healing Power of Art
In All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Bringley revisits the many ways that art meets life, and life art, and how death is often the bridge between them.
UK Extends Export Ban on Coveted “Portrait of Omai”
London’s National Portrait Gallery was given a few months to acquire the work, which depicts the first Polynesian visitor to the UK.
Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists
Free and open to the public, Pratt Shows celebrate the school’s graduating students. MFA and BFA work on view this spring in Brooklyn, New York.
The Sculptor Making Art With Loved Ones’ Ashes
Inspired by the three-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, Julian Stair’s exhibition honors the lives of eight people with cinerary jars.
Art Institute of Chicago Under Scrutiny Over Sacred Nepali Necklace
The 17th-century object remains on display at the Chicago museum despite Nepal’s calls for repatriation.
LSU School of Art Grants Highest MFA Stipends in the Southern US
With funded assistantships, full tuition waivers, and generous stipends, Louisiana State University helps students lay the groundwork for a successful lifelong art practice.
Art Problems: How Do I Get a Public Art Commission?
Want to leave a mark on your city or town, but don’t know where to start? Paddy Johnson has some tips.
Rose B. Simpson Embeds Ancestral Histories in Clay
She has taken clay and used it to recall its ancestral roots in Pueblo culture and address the present history of postcolonial recovery and ongoing trauma.