from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/arts/30arts-WATERBOARDIN_BRF.html
July 30, 2008
The artist, Steve Powers, opened “The Waterboarding Thrill Ride” on Saturday in the Coney Island arcade in Brooklyn. An animatronic diorama that depicts a prisoner being waterboarded, it is being presented by Creative Time, the public art organization, as part of an initiative called “Democracy in America: The National Campaign.” The piece, which occupies a former photo booth redesigned as a jail cell on West 12th Street in Coney Island, will be on view to the public throughout the summer. Viewers can see the scene through cell bars after paying $1 outside. “Humor has long been a strategy for speaking the unspeakable,” Anne Pasternak, the president and artistic director of Creative Time, said in a statement, “and it is vital that we as a nation begin a dialogue about the implications of waterboarding.” In mid-August Mr. Powers and several lawyers will be waterboarded by a trained professional in a secret location in Coney Island as a private performance. Documentation on the performance will be at creativetime.org.
