A mushroom cloud balloon in Times Square is supposed to make you stop and think

WNYC News | May 20, 2022

In the valley below Times Square's electrified billboards and skyscrapers stands a 30-foot tall inflatable sculpture: a horror comedy mashup of a child’s bouncy castle and a nuclear mushroom cloud. At the very top are big black letters that demand “Zero Nukes” in the eight languages of the countries thought to possess nuclear weapons: English, Russian, Mandarin, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, Urdu and French.

The art work, which is also called "Zero Nukes," was made by the Mexican artist Pedro Reyes. It's the centerpiece of "Amnesia Atómica NYC," a public art project commissioned by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and presented by Times Square Arts, which is meant to generate conversations around the anti-nuclear movement through performances, a virtual-reality experience, participatory art work and much more.

For more, read the story on Gothamist.

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