Installation artists Jeff Greenspan and Hunter Fine — the pair who have been moonlighting as “urban trappers” around New York City of late — brought their internet sensation to the District on Sunday afternoon, setting up Tea Party Traps near the White House and on the National Mall. Greenspan and Fine were kind enough to allow DCist to tag along and watch the social experiment unfold.
So what were the Tea Party Traps baited with? Dick Armey’s “Give Us Liberty” manifesto, an aerosol can of gun cleaner, an assortment of anti-Obama and tax buttons, a few Don’t Tread on Me stickers, and, of course, a pocket sized Constitution. (Which, somewhat poetically, was the object inside the trap that was the most troublesome to keep from collapsing.)
Greenspan — who has a history of creating whimsical outdoor projects like the tourist sidewalk lane — describes Urban Traps as “a project where we lay traps for certain subcultures.” Both Greenspan and Fine work in advertising and weren’t shy about emphasizing the sociological aspects of the traps — Greenspan admitted that the first question he gets from people about them is what the traps are advertising.
Most were content to gawk at the traps — the claws of which are made of cardboard — or try to set them off by kicking rocks on them. A few stopped to examine them in depth and talk about them. (Parents, on the other hand, usually weren’t thrilled with their curious rugrats running up to and playing around with what appeared to be an unattended bear trap with a can of gun cleaner in it.) The traps certainly provoked an interesting reaction from many, including two men who were walking past Lafayette Square on their way from a wedding — without prompting, one of the men suddenly broke into an half-admission of conservative guilt before the pair shuffled off in their matching brown loafers back to their hotel.
Greenspan and Fine said that they had some plans to bring the traps to other cities in the future, as long as they can find the right subculture to trap — and they didn’t rule out returning to D.C.
Perhaps the most interest part of the day? Nary a single authority figure stopped to ask about the traps — which perhaps was a good thing, considering that we’re not sure if the notoriously stuffy Park Police would find them as “funny as fuck,” like one undercover New York cop did. Who knows: maybe everyone was just busy dealing with the pudding.
