Brazilian artist mocks Americans with the ‘Personal Space Protector’

Vivian Puxian with her Personal Space Protector

A peril of urbania is overcrowding. Every time  I leave the office and walk out onto Broadway, I’m faced with a steady stream of pedestrians (made worse lately by the hordes attracted by the Hollister hotties). Most days, I don’t mind it — It’s vibrant! It’s life in the city! It’s the melting pot that is New York City! — but on sweltering summer days when New York really feels like it’s melting, I sometimes grow irritated when bumping shoulders or rubbing up against an unknown sweaty stranger.

On those days,  perhaps I should consider a “Personal Space Protector.” It’s a contraption designed by Brazilian conceptual artist Vivian Puxian. On her blog devoted to the trademarked creation, she writes:

I’ve always wanted to be able to walk in the streets without being pushed, kicked, stepped on, hit, etc. I can tell you all that happened to me all the time (I don’t know why) but now I’ve got my “PERSONAL SPACE” and I feel comfortable in the crowd. No more problems.

I FEEL COMPLETELY SAFE.

I know NOBODY WILL STEAL MY WALLET, and I know I WON’T GET CONTAGIOUS DISEASES LIKE THE SWINE FLU and so many others! It feels like heaven!

via Personal Space Protection Blogspot.

It may feel like heaven, but it looks ridiculous. The New York Post’s Alisa Wolfson recently donned the Personal Space Protector to walk through Times Square:

It may not be a pretty contraption, but it definitely does the job when walking down crowded Manhattan streets. Vanity aside, this is where choosing between personal space and personal style comes to a crossroads — but for artist and creator Vivian Puxian, it’s a no-brainer.

Think of it as a bumper for your body, a protruding metal ring that repels scurrying souls from coming closer than two feet from you.

via SPACE CASE! – New York Post.

Okay. Let’s be honest here. No one in his or her right mind is going to seriously buy this thing. What is this really about?

The Post article says that Puxian calls her creation “functional art.” But I think it would be fairer to just call this whole thing “art,” or perhaps, better yet, a “publicity stunt.”

Puxian is doing a Borat-esque trip across the United States (New York, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, etc.), taking photos of herself in various locations wearing the Personal Space Protector, as well as interviewing “locals” about the device. Here’s a sample video from her website:

Ed. note (8/27/09): I guess Puxian didn’t like my linking to these videos. They’ve since been marked private. You can check out other non-private videos from her travels on her website.

I suspect that Puxian, like myself, is intrigued by our complicated relationship with privacy. She writes on the Protector blog:

Yes, folks, we live in a planet that gets more and more populous every day, and some people don’t seem to understand the most basic rules of courtesy. I can’t ask people to respect my personal space, my health, my will to walk freely without being pushed or bumped.

So I created this AWESOME object of art, called “PERSONAL SPACE“. It’s been classified as “functional art”, and it ensures we maintain a safe distance from others – still being sociable, without hurting ANYONE, without being aggressive, without being impolite – WITHOUT GETTING HURT either. I’m positive this will be VERY popular in the future with lots of people, as EVERYONE would like to have personal space but no one knows HOW to preserve it.

via SPACE CASE! – New York Post.

Unlike myself, and more like Borat (a.k.a. Sacha Baron Cohen), I think Puxian is poking fun at American’s notions of privacy, and need for personal space. In a future artistic interpretation of this project, I imagine Puxian will liken the Protector to the American border, and our desire to shut out Mexico when swine flu broke out there. After all, she puts great emphasis on the Protector’s ability to prevent wearers from catching the swine flu. I don’t think that’s just a marketing ploy… and I really doubt the protector can actually effectively protect against infectious diseases.

Interestingly, she launched the Protector blog (and I assume, her art project) in June, a month after Americans were demonstrating seriously for the U.S.-Mexico border to be closed down, to keep us safe from Mexican swine flu.

We Americans have definitely given her some great comic material to work with. From Wisconsin’s Capitol:

From Times Square:

Crazy Americanos! Maybe we deserve a little mocking.

(Thanks for sending, Dustin.)