Happy Bullish 2011!!!: Olek’s Project B
Abstract
Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull is imposing in scale. It is a model of muscular machismo and a popular tourist spot. It stands taller than most people in the middle of a very busy part of Manhattan, usually gleaming in the sun like a trophy of capitalist masculinity. Its scale is met with detail, as the Charging Bull features expressive eyes and eyebrows, a stance that exudes motion and energy, and a detailed musculature, from ribs to thighs. Very early Christmas morning (about three o’clock) in 2010, the artist Olek escaped from any potential sugar-plum fantasies and stole down to Wall Street to leave a Christmas gift for New York City. Olek had crocheted, by hand and without assistance, a covering for the Charging Bull, perhaps a sweater or a sort of “bull cozy” and installed it in the dead of night so as to avoid the authorities. She would later entitle this piece Project B (Wall Street Bull).