George and the Exchange

This afternoon, I visited my friend Matt in his new home near Wall Street. Afterwards, I dared to tread on the Street itself, down as far as Federal Hall, where in the past I took occasional photos of the statue of George Washington, gazing toward the New York Stock Exchange. 

Today was blazing hot in lower Manhattan. I walked through touristy crowds from Wall Street up to City Hall, where I discovered some curious bits of art. 

In honor of July 4th, an artist has recreated sections of the Statue of Liberty, in copper, and scattered them around City Hall Park. These sections appear to be to scale, and are largely of various folds and creases in the original's, shall we say, robe. Each has a marker with a guide to whereabouts on the statue the replicas would fit. 

It is at first a fascinating concept, but sadly, what sprang to mind immediately and would not easily depart, is that the pieces of Liberty's robe resembled airplane wreckage, just days after the downing of a passenger jet over Ukraine left fuselage sections scattered across fields…