Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull is imposing in scale. It is a model of muscular machismo and a popular tourist spot. It stands taller than most people in the middle of a very busy part of Manhattan, usually gleaming in the sun like a trophy of capitalist masculinity. Its scale is met with detail, as the Charging Bull features expressive eyes and eyebrows, a stance that exudes motion and energy, and a detailed musculature, from ribs to thighs. Very early Christmas morning (about three o’clock) in 2010, Polish-American yarn artist Olek escaped from any potential sugar-plum fantasies and stole down to Wall Street to leave a Christmas gift for New York City. Olek had crocheted, by hand and without assistance, a covering for the Charging Bull, perhaps a sweater or a sort of “bull cozy” and installed it in the dead of night so as to avoid the authorities. She would later entitle this piece Project B (Wall Street Bull). This paper documents the artistic and political influences of Project B within its context less than a year before the Occupy Wall Street movement began and explores the implications Olek intended and audiences experienced, specifically with regards to gender, domesticity, and their relationship to Wall Street culture in the wake of the 2008 recession.