Josephine Meckseper, Manhattan Oil Project

Black gold near the crossroads of the world? Stranger things have happened there, but in the case of the oil derrick busily pumping away on the empty lot at 46th and Eighth, bubbling crude isn’t the point; art is, or maybe it’s real estate. This public project for the Art Production Fund is the latest offering by Meckseper, an artist whose work casts a cold, critical eye on the imperial-financial machinations of our globalist society. Her oil rig on the last vacant parcel in that developers’ heaven called Times Square is a reminder that when it comes to making big bucks in Manhattan, it’s better to look up than down.