'In New York, wolves have bitten a tourist': a provocateur sculptor comes up with legends that many believe
'12.01.2021'
Vita Popova
In one of the parks in New York, a menacing warning has been set for visitors - a monument in memory of a tourist bitten by wolves. This and other alternative stories of the metropolis are described in the video edition. Voice of America.
“At nightfall, New York's parks are closing. Do not get in, or you will become the prey of a predator, ”the video says about the monument to the wolves that killed the tourist.
According to the story, in the 1970 years of the city’s measures, Ed Koch came up with the idea of keeping a pack of wolves in the subway depot to protect subway cars from graffiti artists. However, the wolves scattered through the numerous tunnels of the city, bred there and began to go out at night to hunt for curious tourists.
As the newspaper notes, only part of this story is true.
Public reaction
One passerby called it an "interesting parody."
"I wonder how many people take it at face value?" - he said.
There are also such incredulous people who climb the Internet to check if this is true or not. There they find confirmation - a video of social advertising that warns of danger. True, not everyone pays attention to the fact that the name of the site - nycurbanlegends.com - speaks for itself.
And nearby, the author of the legend, Joe Reginella, sits and watches the reaction of the public.
Arsenal of unusual sculptures
The sculptural underground is created in the basement of a residential building in the Staten Island area of New York.
“There is more than one page in the history of an alternative metropolis here,” the newspaper notes.
So, among other sculptures created by this master is a ship with 400 passengers, which was sunk by a giant octopus in 1963. According to legend, this event took place on the day of the assassination of Kennedy, so many did not hear anything about it.
There is also a monument in the sculptor's arsenal that confirms the theory of the existence of aliens. According to the author, in 1977, during the famous New York blackout, the tug crew noticed a luminous object in the sky. They thought it was a private jet. The object fell into the bay. The tug rushed to the rescue. As it turned out, it was not an airplane at all, but a UFO. “This news got lost due to the global power outage in the city,” the author of the legend assures.
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Another invented story tells of a herd of circus elephants that were allowed to enter the Brooklyn Bridge after its opening - this should have convinced the townspeople that walking on the bridge was not dangerous. This is how an annual tradition appeared in the city. But in 1929, something went wrong: the elephants ran down Broadway, scattering everything in their path.
“It happened on the day the financial market collapsed - on that Black Thursday brokers lost millions of dollars, so the newspapermen had no time for elephants,” says the author of the legend.
Fake monuments
By the way, fake monuments are made of fake bronze.
It is a resin mixed with bronze dust. The molded sculpture resembles a clay pot in color, but it is worth rubbing it - and the luster of the metal appears.
When asked by the sculptor why people believe in this drawing, he answered: “Because it is more than a drawing. After all, I have not only sculptures, I am creating a whole story - an alternative reality for each monument. ”
He said that last year The New York Times called it Banksy from sculpture, and added that he liked this comparison.
Reginella by profession - window dresser, props manufacturer. However, by vocation, he is a sculptor-provocateur.
His alternative story is a parody of the era, fake news and conspiracy theory.
Other sculptures he created include a shark's mouth-shaped crib that engulfs a baby sleeping in it. “The master created such a bed for his two-month-old nephew,” the newspaper writes. boredpanda.com.
According to Reginella, the shark from the movie "Jaws" inspired him to create such a crib. In particular, the sculpture recreates the scene where the gray-haired old man Quinta swallows a sea monster.
