Yesterday morning on my way to work I passed by a storefront near the corner of 40th and 8th Avenue. It had been vacant for some time but this morning there was brewing buzz of activity around it. Sometime earlier in the morning an artist had put nicely stenciled letters on the storefront window that read, "THE ASSASSINATION OF HILLARY CLINTON; THE ASSASSINATION OF BARACK OBAMA".
The exhibit turned out to be a short lived statement which is getting much more attention online than in real life, where it was up for only a few hours. When I passed by I thought about taking a picture but balked. When I returned a couple hours later the window was covered by construction paper and the artist was at the police station being interrogated by the cops and the secret service.
Later interviewed, the artist said the piece was a reference to character assassination in the media. Seems like a pretty harmless thing to me and it's a shame this guy and his message were so swiftly swept away. The storefront is directly opposite the New York Times building so at least he caught the attention of his intended audience.
Read the NY Times' blog post about the whole thing here.