As Art Basel 2011 was fast approaching, I wanted to create a STRONG, LIFE SIZE, ATTENTION GRABBING piece that would blend in with my Greed Kills project. So it seemed like a no brainer to do this project. The concept was to wheatpaste life-size men (CEO's) from some of the biggest corporations around that have committed suicide as a direct result of their GREED all around the city to grab people's attention. As I started digging in and gathering facts and deciding on who & what companies to use, the process was just absolutely overwhelming and fascinating and took on a life of it's own.
The 1st person I decided to use is Phil Pagano. Pagano had been the executive director of Metra, the Chicago suburban rail service, for 20 years. It was reported that Pagano was accused of committing fraud to the tune of nearly $500,000. The morbid thing about this is that he stood in front of & was hit by a train from his own company! In his wallet was a copy of Metra's procedures on how to handle a service disruption after a suicide.
Next I found, The former Interim CEO of Life Link III Richard McComb. He was arrested in and charged with six felony tax charges for failure to pay his taxes has allegedly committed suicide in Florida. The sheriff’s office got a call at 6:15 that morning from a man who said he was going to kill himself and where they could find his body.
The 3rd man in the piece is ReiJane Huai. Huai was the 52 year old founder of the Long Island-based storage company FalconStor. He was found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest. He was accused of a potential insider trading allegation in which “he and other top execs dealt 125,000 shares of stock at a artificially inflated price of $545,000.
Lastly, I decided to focus on David Kellermann, CEO of Freddie Mac. Mr. Kellermann and other executives at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae became the focus of intense scrutiny when lawmakers learned they would receive bonuses totaling $210 million dollars! Mr. Kellermann was set to receive $850,000 over 16 months. Mr Kellerman was found of an apparent suicide, when his wife discovered him hanging from a piece of exercise equipment in the basement.
My intention for this piece is not to cause farther grief for the families they left behind, although, it's interesting that none of these men seemed to worry about that themselves, but to show that greed in any form is an epidemic! And I feel compelled to bring these issues into the light. My hope is to spread awareness through public art, through social media, through conversations. Awareness leads to accountability. Awareness inspires action, and isn't that the point?
The finished piece the I put on a wall (with E's help of course) on the southwest corner of NE Miami Ave & 25th St in the Wynwood District was 19 feet long by 6 foot tall.
