New York Artists Get Naked on Wall Street

a demonstrator stripping on wall street

This past Monday morning was anything but mundane for Wall Street passerby. A group of more than 50 performance artists stripped down in the street to express their desire for greater transparency in financial markets. The performance, titled “Ocularpation: Wall Street” was put together by Zefrey Throwell, and was inspired by his 65-year-old mother’s return to work after losing her retirement savings during the 2008 market crash.

“I came up with this as an educational project to help illuminate the mysterious wheels of Wall St.,” Throwell told reporters. “It’s not just a strip tease.”

Strip-tease or not – the performance ended in three arrests for disorderly conduct.

“It was pretty hard to keep a straight face,” said Eric Clinton Anderson, 32, one the artists who ended up in handcuffs. “I think it’s pretty interesting Wall Street guys can do what they’ve done and nobody goes to jail.”

According to witnesses, the arrests happened after the 5-minute rehearsed performance was over with, and all of the participants had re-dressed.

“I thought they’d just yell at us and call us weird,” said Anderson. Unfortunately for the artists, the police had other plans.

“I’ve got bigger fish to fry,” said Throwell when asked for his opinion on the arrests. “[Those fish] being the financial institutions of the US and the world.”

Whether or not the performance achieved Throwell’s goal of garnering greater transparency on Wall Street remains to be seen – but it certainly brightened the day of a few New Yorkers making their way to work that morning.

“It was like out of a…movie,” said surprised street vendor Ali Wafaa, 27. “I wish New York City would always be like that.”

-Hannah Perlmutter

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