NEW YORK ART: A GIANT E. COLI STATUE

There’s a new art installation in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan: a giant statue of an E. coli microbe, the kind that causes diarrhea. Titled “Earth Potential: E. coli”, it’s a 10,000-times magnified electron-microscope image of the fecal bacterium that causes 265,000 infections in the U.S. yearly, with symptoms including cramps and diarrhea. Made from cut-out aluminum, it rests in City Hall Park as part of the larger exhibition, “Earth Potential,” by the Estonian artist Katja Novitskova. Aside from E. coli, the other pieces in the show include a huge earthworm, a nematode, and a human embryo magnified to resemble a clump of moldy peaches.
* This reminds me of Michelangelo’s Tapeworm.
* What’s next? The Museum of Dandruff, Ingrown Hair and Ear Wax?
* If you’re going to see it, be warned that the large brown installation on the west corner of the park is not art; that’s just something from a Great Dane.