Strip poker as a social critique
In New York a week-long performance was over, when a total of 50 players played in a shop window strip poker to the unequal distribution of wealth in our society to make carefully. A “Occupoker” movement, so to speak.
“I’ll raise you one” was the project that the artist had installed Zefrey Throwell in the window of Art in General. The title is an intentional and linguistic awkwardness could be “I raise you one” hot, but also with a flippant “I’m raising ‘you one” or “I’ll get you one down.” be translated. Here the exchange language with the terminology of the popular card game in the U.S. in a playful manner is mixed.
50 participants, who took turns again and again sat behind the window and played strip poker. Six hours a day. The spectacle was seen from the street and drew art enthusiasts and amateur voyeurs alike. Throwell explained the meaning of the event thus: “I see this as a criticism of the economy and society, and how wealth is distributed in our society.”
Thus, the event is close in spirit to the Occupy-motion. However, here most of the participants were naked from the second day. “I’ve told people that they can wear what they want. Clothes here means yes quasi bankroll. My advice, however, was to wear many layers. ”
Actually, “I’ll raise you one” more like a beacon of absurdity and futility, and was not meant quite seriously the history, but art is known to try out must be limits, and it seems fun to the participants to have been made for.
Nudity as a form of protest is nothing new for Zefrey Throwell. His most famous project is called “Ocularpation: Wall Street.” A group of performers dressed as bankers, managers, secretaries, etc. put on the market street and took off for no apparent Anlasss. The project attracted international attention.