
Times Square has no shortage of attractions. But Chinese art collective Polit-Sheer-Form-Office hopes their upcoming art performance will get people to stop... and help mop?
The performance is called "Do the Same Good Deed" and will happen on Monday from noon to 1 pm. It is part of an exhibition of the group's work at the Queens Museum.
Polit-Sheer-Form-Office is composed by artists Song Dong, Hong Hao, Xiao Yu, Liu Jianhua and Leng Lin, who were all born in the 1960s, during a time of Communist rule in China.
Curator Ruijun Shen of the Guangdong Times Museum in China, said that when she connected with the Queens Museum, they pondered the idea of how people gather individually in collective, public spaces.
“For example, in Central Park, people can run and walk their dog but they never get together,” Shen said. But in China, she said it's different. "People know each other through being in the park.”
One of the group’s artists, Song Dong, said the performance in Times Square is an opportunity for people to become art. “We don't know who will participate but I hope everybody doing something there can feel from the object and from the performance,” Dong said. “And really think about our life — what we will do and how to be together.”
Sherry Dobbin is director of public art for Times Square Alliance, the group collaborating with the Queens Museum to host Polit-Sheer-Form-Office. She said she encourages people to participate in “Do The Same Good Deed,” as it’s not a complicated art installation.
“So often we learn so much by doing, and I challenge people to come out and do two things, at least for New Yorkers that they probably don’t do,” Dobbin said. “Which is one, come to Times Square in the middle of the day, and two, a very common domestic activity in a huge public space.”
The group’s exhibition is on display at the Queens Museum through March 2015.