Artist paints 'real' truth of Wall St

ALL that glitters on Wall Street is fool's gold for a New York artist who has gone to extreme lengths to bare his views on the world's most famous finance centre.

An exhibition of Zefry Throwell's work in Manhattan's trendy Meatpacking District transfers the angry sentiments of the Occupy Wall Street protests to the rarified atmosphere of the art gallery.

Housed in a bare-walled industrial space, "Ocularpation: Wall Street" features rows of golden objects that the 36-year-old artist says represent the Financial District's chief professions.

There are brooms for the janitors, piggybanks for bankers, handcuffs for police, high-heeled sandals for prostitutes, paper coffee mugs and Blackberry phones, neck ties, legal pads and a FedEx box all real and ready to use, except for being encased in gold-colored paint.

"The golden sculptures are representative of the US economy right now. They act as a metaphor for how the US relates with its own people and the rest of the world," he told AFP by email.

"Gold in this body of work references the current American financial dream: sold as a glitter jewel of bling and hype, but in fact a fantasy whose value is a thin layer of myth and speculation."

Throwell was ahead of the curve in casting a rebel eye on Wall Street. Back on August 1 last year, six weeks before the first Occupy activists launched what became their nationwide movement, Throwell was seeking the naked truth of the financial industry.

"I am happy that people are paying attention to financial reform in the US," he said.

Since the heady days of late summer 2011, the Occupy movement has hit hard times. The Zuccotti Park protesters were finally ejected November 15, with other camps as far apart as Boston and Los Angeles suffering similar fates. Today, the movement is struggling to regain the media attention and the public sympathy it once had.

Throwell described the dip in Occupy activity as a winter hiatus.

"They are regrouping. When things get warmer, people will come outside again. I believe this period of hibernation is actually a good thing," he said. AFP