Event: 79th Anniversary of the Great Depression 2008
Two weeks after the investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, LigoranoReese installed Economy in front of the New York State Supreme Court Building on Foley Square in lower Manhattan. Their installation reified the anxieties and fears rattling the public as the entire financial system started melting down in the final weeks of the 2008 election.
“What we like about these sculptures,” Reese says, “is that they are very popular in the best sense of the word, people love to touch them, but in the shape of a word, to see them meltdown and vanish, they take on a completely different meaning.”
“With the recent turmoil in the financial markets,” Ligorano adds, “the anxiety creeping through the country from Main Street to Wall Street… this sculpture captures the results of unregulated markets on the U.S. economy. To see the word ‘economy’ melting down is representational of an extreme time.” – ArtDaily.org
