What CNN didn't see at Zuccotti Park: Mark di Suvero's "Joie de Vivre"

I watched a segment on CNN yesterday about the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park. The video footage was shot from a helicopter overhead, which showed the empty park surrounded by barricades with protestors gathered around the perimeter. The economist Jeffrey Sachs was commenting on voiceover about the OWS movement marking change in America. No one mentioned the park’s 70-foot-tall sculpture, Joie de Vivre, by Mark di Suvero that was repeatedly shown in the footage. The CNN video was shot before the protesters were allowed to return to the park.

There is a fascinating story to be told which the major news organizations have egregiously overlooked. This monumental red steel work was created by an artist who lives in New York City and opposed the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Think of di Suvero’s sculptures which directly addressed the two wars, Peace Tower and Mother Peace. Joie de Vivre was installed at the corner of Broadway and Cedar Street in 1996. di Suvero is married to Kate Levin, who is Mayor Bloomberg’s Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. On November 7, 2011, the OWS Arts and Culture Group sent a letter to di Suvero asking him to urge the city to remove barricades around the work that had been set up after one of the protesters climbed on the sculpture.

I was struck by the fact that there has been a paucity of discourse on the metaphorical role of a sculpture that was made by an antiwar protester and inadvertently situated in the middle of the OWS camp. The protesters and media will eventually move on but Joie de Vivre will remain in Zuccotti Park as a silent, powerful and resilient presence.

Watch the November 15, 2011 video clip on http://www.cnn.com/:

“Sachs: OWS movement marks change”