Occupy at Frieze NY

The Financial Times is running an article on the possibility of Occupy Wall Street protests at the Frieze NY art fair.  Given these high end shows draw both from corporate participation as well as high net worth individuals, it does seem to be prime protest ground for the Occupy movement.

The FT reports

But for Occupy Wall Street protesters, the fair, with its confluence of money and art, is just another manifestation of the growing gap between the 99 per cent and the 1 per cent.

“The issue is who is benefiting disproportionately from the work of the many,” said Tal Beery, an artist involved with the Occupy Museums group. “It’s been 10 years of a growing [art] market, and the wealthy keep pulling away from the rest.”

Frieze is expected to draw thousands of visitors to Randall’s Island, a hunk of land in the East River best known for holding up the Triborough Bridge that links Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. Also on hand to welcome guests will be demonstrators vowing to “un-Frieze” culture and objecting to the commoditisation of art as a luxury good.

“Frieze is one of the many shopping mall style fairs where art is really valued based on its price tag rather than the inherent value of the work itself,” said Imani Brown, another Occupy organiser who is helping to plan a protest on Sunday.

In addition to the usual signs and slogans, participants will offer “free art for fair exchange”, bartering “objects, crafts, information and proposals” for whatever they can get. The group held a similar event outside the Armory Show in March.

Occupiers are not the only New Yorkers looking askance at Frieze. As the show’s 225,000 square foot tent and 180 booths were installed over the past few weeks, the island also hosted giant inflatable rats – a familiar sight in US cities where union activists bring them along to heckle employers who hire non-union labour.

Source: The Financial Times