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In the News: The Future of Fearless Girl and Charging Bull
••• “Negotiations are under way between the Mayor’s Office and State Street Global Advisors, the financial firm behind the now-iconic [Fearless Girl] statue, regarding the long-term future of both Fearless Girl and her nemesis statue, Charging Bull. According to multiple sources close to the matter, the parties have already decided to make the pair—now considered inseparable—a permanent fixture in the New York City landscape. The only issue yet to be determined is whether they will stay in their current location, which could be redesigned, or be moved to a new one. Officials have traffic and safety concerns regarding the existing location, due to Fearless Girl’s immense popularity as a tourist destination, sources said. The current space could be redesigned to address those concerns, or both Fearless Girl and Charging Bull could be moved to a more pedestrian-friendly location nearby.” The phrases “now-iconic” and “immense popularity” lead one to assume that the “sources” here are for the ad agency that commissioned the piece of corporate art. I, for one, sincerely object to the idea that the statues are inseparable. —Adweek
••• Jason Hirschhorn of 169 Hudson “has sued his venture capitalist neighbor for $3 million, charging that the moneyman is making ‘excessive, unreasonable and intrusive noise’ in their fancy Tribeca condo building.” The noise is apparently from the kids running around. —New York Daily News
••• Soho restaurant “Paowalla will close after service on Saturday and soon reopen in the same location as the Bombay Bread Bar. It will be, [chef-owner Floyd Cardoz] says, a more colorful, stripped-down and affordable place, where Mr. Cardoz is hoping he can do for Indian cuisine in New York what restaurants like Ugly Baby and Uncle Boons have done for Thai food—present authentic, regional cuisine in a way that New Yorkers viscerally respond to.” Three words: consistency, consistency, consistency. —New York Times
••• I think this Eater article on cashless restaurants—of which we have more and more around here—had some interesting points, but honestly, tl;dr. I did catch this part: “Going cashless has been incentivized by credit card companies like Visa, which, as part of a promotion in July, offered up to “$500,000 to 50 eligible U.S.-based small business food service owners who commit to joining the 100 percent cashless quest,” per its press release. Companies that opted in got $10,000 from Visa for tech upgrades.” By the way, Kaffe 1668 South now has even more prominent signage requesting card payments rather than cash. How long till it spurns cash entirely?
••• “Belle Knox, who put herself through Duke by becoming a porn star, is now a student at New York Law School in Tribeca.” Personally, I found working for the Forestry School did the trick, so to speak. (And she really could’ve done better with her nom de porn. How about Diablo Blue?) —New York Post
••• OddFellows Ice Cream Company is opening at Houston and Mott. —New York Times
••• “A New Enlarged Retail Store Opens in the National Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green.” —Broadsheet
••• Daytonian in Manhattan on the history of 1 Broadway, which has gone through some changes over the decades.
12 Comments
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for the record, arturo di modica, the sculptor of charging bull objects to the placement of fearless girl with his work. he has even sued to have them separated.
I must agree with Arturo Di Modica. The fearless Girl alters his art and changes the symbolism greatly. I’m curious why the Mayor’s Office agrees to this.
Because he’s a political hack pandering to special interests.
Amen.. and yet re-elected easily. it’s truly sad how poor the leadership choices were (are) for this great city.
It would be interesting to know whether the recent 5Pointz court decision invoking the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) differentially helps the case for Charging Bull or Fearless Girl. Or, does it just mean that the City is in a worse position with respect to moving/removing both sculptures? They were both originally unauthorized in their installation, but one predates the other and predates the law.
Fearless Girl has absolutely nothing to do with Charging Bull’s message. She does not belong there at all. It is just wrong to butt into Arturo Di Modia’s original reason for installing Charging Bull.
Fearless Girl in the right setting may be good. But not at the expenses of Arturo’s work.
Agree 100%
No. “Fearless Girl” is a work in its own right, but should be separate from “Charging Bull”, as its original artist stipulates. No artist should have his/her work modified in this way without permission.
(The “No” was not to the posters here, but to the idea of putting the 2 sculptures together permanently…sorry if unclear)
I have lived within 2 blocks of the Charging Bull for more than 5 years. All the suggestion that the Fearless Girl has attracted lots of new visitors is completely false. The Bull always attracted lots of interest from tourists. I have seen no appreciable change since the Fearless Girl was installed.
de Blasio is a political hack who is trying to impute himself into something iconically nyc.
Fearless Girl is a shameless piece of corporate advertisement (coming from a company with a poor track record of gender discrimination no less) which City Hall can’t get enough of because of its shallow ‘political correctness’.
If you actually consider the fact that Charging Bull was designed as a symbol of the resiliency and forward progress of the US economy, Fearless Girl, rather than being a testament to the strength of women in business, is actually portraying the message that overachieving females are obstructing economic growth and stifling progress.
Art, is of course in the eye of the beholder and I would say that the bull is stretching the description of art and it is rather an example of Mr Di Modica’s pretentiousness. It seems to me to be mostly a vehicle for crude photos of people at its back end by tourists art aficionados. ‘Fearless Girl’ ” which some think represents “….overachieving females obstructing economic growth and stifling progress.” Wow! I just never realized that over-achieving females were such a force for evil.