Jim, what have you been up to?
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 12:00 am
Early this morning, a mysterious statue of Edward Snowden appeared in Union Square Park in New York City, opposite the Abraham Lincoln Statue.
The mystery of the statue has been solved. It is an art piece by Delaware-based artist Jim Dessicino.
The art piece is being shown as part of the festival Art In Odd Places, which celebrates art by (as the name suggests) placing it all over the city in odd places. The festival itself, which is running from yesterday through Sunday, is on 14th Street from the Hudson River to Avenue C. The theme of the festival is “Free.”
Dessicino made the Snowden sculpture last year while he was studying at the University of Delaware as a graduate student. Dessicino started constructing the sculpture in September 2013, just months after Snowden famously leaked secrets from the NSA to journalist Glenn Greenwald. Dessicino says that as soon as the Snowden leaks came out, he knew he wanted to make an art piece about it.
“What he did is possibly the most significant act of anyone from my generation,” Dessicino told Business Insider. “He put truth over the rule of law and committed a huge self-sacrifice.
When asked whether he sees Snowden as a patriot or a traitor, he dismissed the question as “irrelevant,” because the act “was bigger than him.”
