(Image Source: Village Voice)


BY JULIA CORDEROY


A week-long tournament of strip poker is going down in New York City - all in the name of art, of course. The Daily Mail explains how it works...

“A performance piece called I’ll Raise You One sees a revolving cast of 48 participants signed up to play strip poker in a shop window in downtown Manhattan... Seven players at a time sit around a white table and gamble away their clothes in full view of the street.”

But why? The artist behind the work, Zefrey Throwell sees strip poker as a metaphor for the economy - and he’s attempting to make a statement about unequal wealth distribution in the U.S. Here’s what he tells the New York Post.

“I asked people to come in clothes and then play strip poker, but I didn’t specify how many layers they were supposed to wear - so some people came looking like the Michelin Man and other people came in like two t-shirts and some jeans - and then everyone is expected to play by the same rules, even though it’s unfair how much you start with.”

This isn’t the first time Throwell has used nudity as a tool for activism. Earlier this year he hit Wall Street for a performance art piece. Here’s The New York Times with a peek.

“It’s kind of an absurdest Freudian Nightmare/dream. I had those people become naked in the process of doing their job on the street. So it is Wall Street exposed.”

Throwell says - if his art sparks up conversation about inequality, then it is a success.