The scene outside the
“Assassination.”Photo: Nytimes.com
Just the other day we were thinking, Gee, we haven’t seen a nakedly opportunistic, shocking piece of crap from the art world lately. Whither the Piss Christ, the Naked Britney, the ejaculated-upon Post of 2008? Well. Enter Yazmany Arboleda, an artist whose exhibit, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama,” at a vacant storefront at 40th and Eighth was shut down this morning within an hour of the artist’s putting the title up.
The Times’ City Room blog went down and took a look at the sinister scene.
The police officers declined to answer any questions, and at first would not permit reporters to speak with Mr. Arboleda, who was wearing a black T-shirt and making cellphone calls from inside the makeshift gallery.
Really? The exhibit was a man dressed in black making cell-phone calls? That’s kind of clever actually.
Oh, no, it wasn’t: It was a series of figurative representations of the candidates that showed “the extreme effects of a society intent on castrating anyone in power,” indicative of Arboleda’s signature “take no-prisoners” style, says the press release on the artist’s Website.
“It’s about character assassination — about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media,” he said. “It’s about the media.” The interview was abruptly ended as Mr. Arboleda was led off to the Midtown South police precinct for what he called an interrogation.
But don’t worry! He wasn’t renditioned. City Room reports that soon after his release, Arboleda called reporters to let them know that he had been released. About the media, indeed.
Police Shut Down Artist’s ‘Assassination’ Show [City Room/NYT]
