Tilton Widro, the artist responsible for those Styrofoam mosques, contacted me today. According to his website, he has “dedicated his life to analyzing Popular American culture through artwork in many different mediums and forms.” Examples include eating over five pounds of food branded to promote the last Indiana Jones movie and handing out more than 400 masks of performance artist Marina Abramovic’s face to people waiting to enter MoMA.

I don’t like asking artists to explain their art, but I thought it might be helpful. Here’s what he said:

Click to enlarge

“On November 1, 2010, Burlington Mosque Factory [that’s the name of the artwork] was performed in the area surrounding the proposed ‘Ground Zero Mosque.’ The mosques, 20 in total, were sculpted from Styrofoam. Brilliant white, the color of peace, the mosques’ soft construction is allegorical to the abuse Islam has had to sustain during the controversy. The mosques were set down on street corners, up against buildings, tree planters, and mailboxes. Defenseless to the hard-edged city of their placement, the styrofoam mosques proposed a peaceful co-existence could be accomplished. Of the photos I sent you [included here], the one with the two mosques facing each other was the result of good Samaritans bringing the mosques to the NYPD patrol car stationed in front of Park51. The officer instructed them to place them at the foot of a tree well, just steps from the building. The mosques were placed on the streets surrounding the building. I’ve attached a diagram of the targeted area, with the circled corners representing where the mosques were put”

The photographs are courtesy Matthew C. Lange.