As noted earlier, artist Steve Powers and a trio of lawyers were waterboarded in Coney Island on Friday for the sake of art. Though no video is available, Art Forum weighs in with some photos of the torture, including the one above of a troubled looking Powers watching David Dames get waterboarded, and reports:
The participants left the room for a minute, then burst through the door; Powers, now hooded, was roughly guided to the inclined waterboarding table … Ritz then stuffed a large black rag in Powers’s mouth, held the artist’s nose with one hand, and poured a steady flow of water onto the rag like a frat boy pours a pitcher of beer. After about eight seconds, Powers began to twitch and jerk on the table, and Ritz quickly removed the rag. Dazed and flushed, the artist was led out of the room … and, after a beat, said, “That sucked!”
Photo by Sam Horine for Art Forum.
Not content with just simulated waterboarding, artist Steve Powers, creator of Coney Island’s new Waterboard Thrill Ride, submitted to the slow drowning torture technique with a trio of lawyers on Friday night. “In a private room at Coney Island, with an audience of artists, journalists, friends and family, former Army interrogator Mike Ritz roughly stuffed a towel into his victims’ mouths, one by one, and poured water until they struggled.” “I think if you’re for or against this technique, the conversation about this needs to start. We need to recognize what it truly is — which is torture,” said the former military interrogator hired to waterboard the group. [Washington Post]
The star of Coney Island’s “Shoot the Freak” game shares the perks of being a live human target.
I meet a lot of girls out here, even though I’m wearing the costume and I’m the freak. They’re interested in meeting the freak.
[NYT]
Photo by EuroCheapo on Flickr.
The NY Post went to Coney Island, and paid a dollar to see Steve Powers’ Waterboard Thrill Ride. Watch the video clip of Powers’ animatronic torture below.
Artist Steve Powers, who has the unlikely distinction of being a favored graffiti artist and Fulbright scholar, is taking it back to Coney Island this summer with a simulated waterboarding display. For just one dollar you can see an animatronic torturer waterboard an orange jumpsuited prisoner. Pouring water over the cloth covered face, and up the nose and mouth, the pricisoner experiences the process of drowning and struggles at his restraints (robotically in this case). Powers’ intent is to get people thinking, and he asks, “What’s more obscene, the official position that waterboarding is not torture, or our official position that it’s a thrill ride?”
Here are some crowd reactions to the display:
“It’s not something to be made fun of. It’s just something they’re trying to make a quick buck off, I guess.”
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