That Statue of Liberty guy just got even stupider and more annoying . . .
NEW YORK (AP) - The French man who dangled 300 feet in the air from the Statue of Liberty says he is an artist, not a daredevil. The stunt that went awry and left Thierry Devaux, 41, dangling from Lady Liberty’s arm for a half-hour was neither a political statement nor a publicity stunt, he
said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “It’s an artistic way for me to express myself,” he said. Devaux, who is from Chamonix and uses the nickname Terry Do, explained that his art comes from the expression of “movement in space. What I like is to be in the gap without gravity.” The Statue of Liberty, he says, is simply “great space.”
Devaux took heat from an angry Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and tourists who were unable to visit Liberty Island, which was closed for three hours because of the stunt. Giuliani called Devaux an “idiot” in a City Hall ceremony where he honored Devaux’s rescuers, calling the stunt “a dumb and stupid thing.”
—Well, I never thought I’d agree with Guiliani . . . Hmm. Here, Titian and Ingres and Bach wasted all that time learning how to paint and sculpt and compose, when all they had to do was tie bedsheets around themselves and jump off buildings . . .
Am I the only one picturing Harry Anderson as Devaux? At least the guy didn’t have a giant set of Groucho glasses (with moustache and eyebrows made of yak hair) with him.
So he’s following in the tradition of his countryman, Yves Klein, who performed a piece titled “Leap into the Void,” flinging himself from a second story window on to bare pavement. The prospect of defenestrating Frenchmen vying to outdo eachother from escalating altitudes bodes ill for us pedestrians.
I dunno, it wasn’t his intention to close it to tourists. Some of us sit at desks, some of us want to fly…I think it’s pretty cool give he’s 41.
Does sounds a bit bonkers, though. Wonder if that’s the closest he’s got to being inside a French woman for quite some time ? <paraphrasing thanks to Woody Allen>
Hmm… this is probably reckless endangerment, maybe criminal trespass, probably misdemeanor charges.
I suggest they bring him in to be arraigned. As he is not an American, I hope the judge denies bail, finding him a flight risk (ouch!), and sets a trial date appropriate to this crime…April 1, 2002. Convict him, sentence him to time served, and deport him so he can try the Eiffel Tower.
Maybe this is why France has the worst road fatality rating in the world? They’re not speeding and driving recklessly, they’re just expressing themselves in a free from 130 mph way.
Of course we have our yahoos here too. You can’t build anything without somebody trying to jump off of it, climb it or some other god forsaken stunt.
In light of this, I was wondering about that guy who climbed, or tried to, one of the Twin Towers, back in the '70s. What was his schtick? Was he protesting, trying to set a world record, or what?
George Willig. Knew someone who went to school with him. Kenny said he was always just a nut. DId it for the adventure. Think he was fined $1.10, a penny a floor.
" Devaux, who is from Chamonix and uses the nickname Terry Do, explained that his art comes from the expression of ‘movement in space. What I like is to be in the gap without gravity.’ "
Sounds like the NYC’s Finest holding pen is gonna be a mighty nice stay for Msr Thierry.
Anyone know what the French government’s response to this is? They gotta be shitting a fleur-de-lis about the symbolism of this outstanding baguette…