Artist Causes Scare With Fake Bomb

About 24-hours after the Times Square terror scare, firefighters and the NYPD bomb squad rushed to a storefront at 1133 Broadway after getting calls from people who thought they saw a bomb inside. What they found, however, was an art display that included a fog machine, a fake time bomb and vials of liquid (turns out it was perfume) that looked like pipe bombs.

The unfortunate piece was created by artist Lisa Kirk, and the perfume inside is called "Revolution," which is meant to smell like smoke, gasoline, tear gas, burnt rubber and decaying flesh.

Kirk told the NY Post, "I feel really bad that that happened. I know they're really busy... There are more important things to deal with than some art installation."

Currently there's an added written explanation next to the display noting that it's just art. Up next: terrorists writing handwritten letter decoys.

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By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on May 6, 2010 10:21 AM

Comments [rss]

Huffy6241

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

themercenary

I work next door to this. It would almost be impossible to mistake this for a real bomb, but some people are just idiots.

RoboticInsides

I would've said the same thing (It would almost be impossible to mistake this for a real bomb) about the Times Square bomb... mostly because of the Sponge Bob clock, but hey...

Mordicai

Can't you just...warn the police? "Hey, I have an art installation, it smokes & stuff...it isn't a bomb, you can come check it out, I just want to give you a heads up."

This also goes for staged robberies...

Politburo

You really think the police are gonna take a call about some art installation, and make a note of it somewhere?

Nevermind that such a system introduces a huge security hole.

Mordicai

Yeah, I was thinking of that as I typed it out. Funny yellow post-it note though: "BOMB ON 1333 Broadway IS NOT A BOMB."

Papercutninja

why not just REMOVE the "piece"? Or at least display it out of view of the passing public?

Mordicai

Yours for the low low price of $50,000.

Mr. Shankly

Irrelevant artist is irrelevant.

RoboticInsides

According to the posters I've seen on the subway, it is illegal for toy guns to look like real guns, so by that logic, shouldn't it be illegal to make toy bombs that look like real bombs?

Politburo

It's already illegal, but there has to be intent.

http://gothamist.com/2009/10/22/dynamite.php

RoboticInsides

Good find, but I don't know if it is quite the same.

In the case you found, the bomb is described as cartoonish. So wouldn't it be more like: it is illegal have a toy gun that looks like a toy gun if you intend to commit some other act with it?

In the subway posters, the gun law seems like there is no intent required. So having a real looking bomb would be a strict liability crime?

Politburo

I don't know the details of either law, but public service campaigns aren't known for nuance. As i understand, the toy gun law has more to do with sales. But if you used a toy gun as if it were a real gun, I'm sure there is a law against that too (instrument of crime or something similar).

Manitoba

Then you'd have to arrest Kevin Smith for his movie "Cop Out", a bomb made to look like a movie.

robingee

OH COME ON. I am an artist and I love provocative stuff but let's not make fake bombs as art, not now. Jesus. Paint a damn picture of a bowl of fruit.