An artist named Yaz wants to replace the Wall Street bull with a... bison. (Isn't there room for both?) He's started up a campaign for the publicly funded art project, and explains his reasons on his website, which launched this month:
- The American Bison is a truly great American animal.
- It is the laughing stock of foreign tourists… It looks stupid… it is not a symbol of power or might… it is a symbol of carelessness … hubris… looks like it is breaking everything along its path… Is that the economic and financial image America wants to project to the rest of the world?
- Speaking of China, it has one too now… the artist made them a replica copy and put it in Shanghai… No copy of the Wall Street Bison will ever be made anywhere… period. There is only one America … only one US of A! And only one Wall Street Bison!
- The story of the American Bison is a great story of survival and resilience… The American Bison came back from the brink of extinction to once again roam the great plains. The Wall Street Bison would send a clear signal to those naysayers who claim: America will never fully recover and is in a perpetual decline. Never is not part of the American vocabulary!
- Everyone agrees change is needed. What change… and how to change… everyone may disagree. but to in order to have a proper dialogue, need the proper terms proper symbols to allow a constructive conversation. but in order to be talking to each other and not past each other, you need to be speaking the same language. And that language is the language of the bison. It is clearly apparent. We no longer live in bear and bull times… we live in bison times. The Age of the Bison has arrived!
Shockingly, there's no Kickstarter campaign, but he is asking for some cash to help fund the project. We'd be more apt to give if he were proposing a bronze version of Sad Panda, though.
