Reopen the Portals, Cowards

An installation connecting New York and Dublin via livestream was shut down in a flash.

By Kylie Cheung  |  May 16, 2024 | 2:40pm
Photo via Shutterstock Latest New York
Reopen the Portals, Cowards

In 2021, Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys rolled out the first installation of his ongoing Portals project by setting up “portals” via livestreams connecting Vilnius, Lithuania, and Lublin, Poland. Three years later, on May 9, the highly anticipated sequel to this popped up in New York City and Dublin—only for the portals to be paused within a week due to something we all could have predicted: lewd behavior from passers by in their respective cities.

Over the last several days, the art installation that was hailed by its patrons and promoters as a means to “redefine the boundaries of artistic expression and connectivity” has primarily become the subject of tabloid fodder and crass New York Post headlines. There have been several documented cases of individuals using the livestream to flash each other or twerk and grind on the portal. There’s footage of Dublin police apprehending one woman for grinding on the portal, while, in New York, there’s footage of a woman since identified as Only Fans model Ava Louise using the portal to flash some Irishmen earlier this week, asking them, “Do you guys like my potatoes, Dublin?” In a few particularly troubling cases, people in Dublin have flashed photos of the World Trade Center burning on 9/11 and even swastikas, per the New York Times. Not great!

Of course, other footage shared on social media has captured some very joyous experiences, like old friends separated by distance reuniting, and even a marriage proposal. Dublin’s city council on Thursday characterized the “overwhelming majority of interactions” between the two cities as “positive,” but justified shutting the portal down (at least temporarily) due to “inappropriate behavior by a small minority of people.” The Flatiron NoMad Partnership, which is the nonprofit group that coordinated the installation of the portal in New York, has said the group hopes to open the portal back up by the weekend. But alas, it’s Thursday afternoon, and there’s nothing new yet on that front…

I’ll say it: Reopen the portals! If the goal of this installation really is to bridge two worlds, I don’t know what better way than through a surface-level glimpse into the everyday nastiness of their respective citizenry. Flashing and twerking on inanimate objects?? That’s just New York—and apparently Dublin—baybee! Portals.org, the organization overseeing the livestreams, has said it’s trying to figure out “possible technical solutions” including blurring inappropriate images—like, say, bare tits or burning towers. As of Thursday, the blurring technology hasn’t been deemed “satisfactory” for the Dublin city council.

That said, everyone behind this whole project seems united in wanting to reopen it ASAP, and I hope they make that happen sooner rather than later. I haven’t yet had the chance to see the portal for myself, mostly because I only learned about it by seeing all the raunchy behavior captured on social media that consequently resulted in the portal being shut down. And I pray that by the weekend I’ll be able to take part in some of that raunchy behavior myself…

 
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