The smiling poop emoji may have missed out on being crowned word of the year, but this weekend in NYC it will be helping bring attention to a pretty shitty global issue.
In honor of World Toilet Day (that’s a thing), non-profit organization Water Aid has organized a pop-up art show in the LES featuring a collection of all poop-themed work. The international holiday is devoted to raising awareness about global sanitation, an issue that affects over 2.3 billion people from New York to Djibouti.
For the last thirty years, Water Aid has been working to provide safe water, sanitation, and hygiene to some of the most impoverished cities around the world. In doing so, they hope to decrease dirty water related illnesses and deaths, promote school attendance, increase safety for women, and provide communities with a greater sense of dignity, allowing them to rise from poverty.
Though the sanitation crisis is no laughing matter, this weekend’s art show features works that are incredibly goofy and colorful, like a Warhol-esque panel of smiling poop emoji’s to a floor to ceiling sculptural installation called “Poop World”.
“It’s a really serious topic but one that’s still really difficult to talk about,” EXPLAINED Sarina Prabasi, CEO of WaterAid.
Confirmed artists include: Yoni Alter, Jon Burgerman, Nick Chaffe, Jhowee Chiang, Madeleine diGangi, Alan Foreman, Jacob Fradkin, Andy Gilmore, Dave Krugman, Anna Laytham, Mick Marston, Roger Mason, Caroline Melisa, Al Murphy, Alvin Ong & Cheri Ong, Diana Park, Robert Petrie, Matthew Reid, Ashkahn Shahparnia, Chairman Ting, Jessica May Underwood, Libby Vanderploeg and Susanne Walström.
The scatological show also corresponds with the release of an app called Give a Shit, which allows downloaders to play with their poop emoji’s by adding different facial features, hairstyles, and accessories.
According to the event’s press release, the exhibition is “interactive”…butt I’m going to leave that one up to imagination. The Shit Show will be on view November 20-23rd at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, so make sure to caption your photos with #TheShitShow or #GiveAShit.
Like this article? Check out some mega realistic food paintings that may inspire some digestion, or other art work currently on view in NYC.
