Fake Paper Cut Out and a Real Angry Man

My most recent project was an installation that carried on from my Berlin concept at Strausberger Platz. Arlette and I decided to construct in the city/ financial district of London, another memorial to an environment that once was, woodlands in England and animals that inhabited them.

We thought wallpapering a bus shelter with fake wooden vinyl paper and standing life size cardboard cutouts would be a great contrast to the concrete filled area.

We scouted the place on Wedensday, Liverpool Street, Monument, Bank, and around the likes until we stumbled on a beautiful building on Threadneedle Street with lovely columns. We thought this would be a fine spot and agreed to meet at 630am the next morning to install it in time for morning rush hour, and we figured it wouldn't be busy at this time.

I went home and printed out, glued together, and cut around the actual size of a wolf and a Eurasion Eagle owl, while Arlette took care of a deer.

And soon it was 5am, time to get up.

Because it was well before rush hour it only took me thirty minutes on the tube to get to Bank Station. The plan was to meet in front of the Royal Exchange building at one of the benches, I was fifteen minutes early, and that was too early and too much time to sit there and contemplate what we were about to do. I thought for sure we would get in trouble and was already rehearsing my lines as the nieve American and Swiss students, which of course is mostly true. It was wholey due to the fact that I didn't realise until then that the "beautiful building" we choose was the Bank of England. No matter how cute we could be I didn't think there would be anyway to talk ourselves out of defacing the property, and at 6 in the morning with a black plastic rubbish bag of animal cut outs I looked more like a homeless animal rights activist then a school girl.

Arlette arrived and she too was thinking the same on her cycle in, and neither of us could believe how busy the area was.

But we did it anyway.

It must have taken us ten minutes to set up. People stared but no one said a thing. We originally planned to do three sections, but we thought better not to risk it and instead to get some photos. I went off to throw our litter away and Arletter crossed to the other side to document it. By the time I got back (about five minutes after I got a cup of coffee) a man in a black suit was tearing it down.

Now even if he worked there, and I really think he didn't, the aggression that he ripped the paper down and kicked the cardboard animals in was just bizarre, why would he do that?
You can see the film from it here, if you look to the far right side, the man at the building. I wanted to get closer to film him, but then we figured if he's this mad we might get shot!