Improv Everywhere (111 Shirtless Men in 5th Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch)

Improv everywhere is a comedic performance art group in New York City who pulls non-threatening pranks. They do all sorts of things from having over 160 people "forget" to wear their pants while riding the subway, or having over 200 people freeze in grand central station for 5 minutes. The freeze video has been a huge youtube hit, however i saw this video and i beleive it makes more of an artistic and satirical statement than a "haha look at us" statement.

The target of improv everywhere is the ambercrombie & fitch store on 5th avenue. The apparent reason is because of the shirtless model, the photos of shirtless men, the paintings of shirtless men, and a bronze statue of a shirtless man all in the store. After a little research the leader of improv everywhere Charlie Todd found out it was not illegal to take off your shirt in public in New York, so devised this sinister plan. The plan was the brutality of the average.

All of the men were in no way models, they were average, imperfect, unlike the models, or the photos of models, or the paintings of models, or the sculptures of models in the store. The plan was simple, walk around shirtless and act as if they were shopping, fully clothed.

but what awaits is the ultimate question, is this art? I say yes, it is making a satirical statement, mocking a clothing corporations image of the ideal man. These men are expressing their opinion of what they think of abercrombie's ideal man. They do it in a comedic harmless matter.

This is more of an abstract artistic statement but it is clearly there. But Todd used shirtless men as a medium to create his piece, it may be too abstract for some to see, but this is clearly an artistic statement, and in my mind and Todd's mind, clearly art.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdeBp8J0rqs