Unnatural acts with animal traps this is not.
Coney Island’s latest sideshow doesn’t feature a sword swallower, insect eater, or snake handler.
In fact, there are no humans at all in “Waterboard Thrill Ride,” a robots-only diorama that forces a controversial interrogation technique into the public eye.
“Coney Island has been reflecting and refracting American society like a funhouse mirror for the past 100 years,” said Steve Powers, 40, the artist who conceived and constructed the storefront display. “We really wanted to create a completely Coney Island experience.”
In the Guantanamo Bay-inspired piece, located in a former photo booth on West 12th Street off Surf Avenue, a hooded robot stands over a man in an orange jumpsuit strapped to a canary yellow table.
Painted on the wall behind the tormentor reads “Don’t worry, it’s only a dream.”
Pop a crisp dollar bill in the slot, and the room is illuminated, water is poured in the man’s mouth, causing convulsions that last 15 seconds.
“There is something really sinister about taking water, the most basic giver of life, and using it as a weapon,” the artist said.
Outside is a painting of SpongeBob SquarePants, being forced water by the crabby Squidward Tentacles. The popular cartoon character strangely seems to keep his usual good spirit, reassuring onlookers that “It don’t Gitmo better.”
The politically-charged diorama will be open through September.
John Sifton, an attorney and researcher with the group Human Rights Watch, said that waterboarding, a form of torture used for hundreds of years, the person experiences the sensation of drowning and believes that death is imminent.
“As such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law,” Sifton said in a statement.
Powers, who grew up in Philadelphia, spent years working in Coney Island, where he painted signs, as well as the cars for the Cyclone roller coaster. “I basically functioned as a carny,” he said.
The point of the piece, he said, is to inform and enlighten.
“The name of the game in Coney Island is to get a reaction,” he said.
Powers doesn’t plan on letting the tethered robot suffer alone.
On August 15, he plans to undergo waterboarding at the hands of a trained interrogator at an undisclosed location in Coney Island.
“I’m absolutely terrified,” Powers said. “Like any good reporter, I want to fully understand. Or understand better.”
Local activist, shop owner, and roller rink operator Diana Carlin, also known as Lola Staar, said the piece epitomizes what Coney Island is all about.
“This isn’t Disney World,” she said. “This isn’t an amusement park that always makes you feel good and happy. It always has an edge—and that is very New York and very Coney Island.”
“It pushes the edge in this sadistic way that feels really wrong but is exciting and invigorating,” she continued.
“Waterboard Thrill Ride” opened July 26, and is commissioned by the nonprofit art organization Creative Time, as part of the group’s public art initiative called Democracy in America: The National Campaign. After its run in Brooklyn, it will be moved to Manhattan’s Park Avenue Armory.
The stars of the diorama—the robots—were easy enough to come by, Powers noted. He bought them on the internet.
