One of the biggest mistakes a person can make is thinking too much about hot dogs.
Just accept that a frankfurter that’s been sitting in murky water all day is delicious, slather it with mustard, and don’t ask too many questions.
But blissful ignorance isn’t the mindset of the Brooklyn-based artists behind the giant 65-foot-tall hot dog sculpture that appeared in Times Square this week.
Fasten your seat belt. Because these sculptors, Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw, have released a manifesto on meat.
Their giant sausage is apparently meant to “examine consumption, capitalism, class, and modern culture.” Times Square Arts website Amazingly readable.
The bizarre press release added that this epic world wiener exposes “carnivorous patriarchy.”
That’s probably why every day at 12:30 p.m., the installation rises from the ground, angles toward the sky, and becomes a confetti cannon.
The explosion of euphemisms is thought to refer to “the hypermasculinity and showmanship often associated with American culture and patriotism.”
Yes, that’s true.
Times Square is a very interesting place to ponder, with its onslaught of noise, lights, and indecipherable smells.
On Wednesday, as I was rushing to work, I passed this giant tube steak and said, It’s a big hot dog. ”
I automatically shrug at this unusual sight, in addition to the fact that it’s the default New Yorker attitude, as well as the fact that the neighborhood includes a giant M&M, a three-story Olive Garden, and the company’s “flagship.” This may be because there is a Krispy Kreme store that is so huge that it is considered to be
The big one is Times Square shit.
The visuals would be even more impressive if “Hot Dogs in the City” were performed at Sheeps Meadow in Central Park — like the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but with monkeys. Except it’s a shirtless guy playing Frisbee.
But frankly, my reaction would probably be the same.
“Oh. A big hot dog.”
I swear no one in the throng of tourists taking photos on Wednesday paused to consider that this installation could be a scathing indictment of American excesses. If anything, they considered it a celebration of imported German cuisine.
But mostly, they saw this as another opportunity for Instagram. Coker City, Kansas The world’s largest twine ball to call our own.
There are also events related to the Best of Worst, which will run until June 13th.
The event, called “Condement Wars,” will feature wrestlers from the New Orleans-based drag group known as Chalk Hole to “defeat masculinity, corporate America, and capitalism.” .
I can see a trend here.
Then there’s a dog beauty pageant (100% approved), a hot dog eating contest (duh), and a stage talk at City Hall to discuss the goodness of food (ugh).
The chat’s panelists include feminist and vegan writers and activists. I have a sneaking suspicion that she is not a hot dog expert.
It’s clear that the point of this undoubtedly striking visual art is to open the viewer’s eyes and make them realize that the hot dog is a symbol of the dark, crude, greedy underworld of American society.
Unfortunately, I just wanted to go to Grey’s Papaya.
