Baby Hulk is about to throw one helluva tantrum on Houston St. (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Houston Bowery Wall
Houston St. at Bowery
www.popaganda.com
all american temper tot slideshow
American consumerism run amok has got Hulk Baby angry! Street art legend and political activist Ron English has wheat-pasted an enormous American flag on the Houston Bowery Wall, the stars centered with skulls, the stripes consisting of fake supermarket deals (selling such products as “Corn Fed Cow Corpse,” “Rainbow Tinted Unicorn Flesh,” and “Aged Deceased Sheep”) and advertising signs (promoting such items as “Kiss Kids on Coke” and “Morrison Marijuana Cigarettes: Baby we couldn’t get much higher”). Other signs proclaim, “Evolution: It’s Not for Everyone,” “Jesus Returns 06-06-06: Look Religious,” and “The Poor: What Are They Good For?” depicting a boy in clown gear and makeup, wearing an army helmet and holding an assault rifle. English also takes shots at breakfast cereal (from his “Cereal Killers” series), Starbucks, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Marlboro, Wall Street, credit cards, oil companies, and U.S. currency — easy targets all, but well deserving of their place on this flag. He also hypes such freak-show characters as Poultry Rex, Multi-Brained Brodmann, Otto Topsy the Internal Alien, and Cathy Cowgirl. Standing in front of it all is English’s trademark Temper Tot, a giant green Hulk Baby with his eyes shut, his face scrunched, his fists tightening, preparing to throw a major tantrum, and you’re not going to want to be around when that happens. Other versions of Temper Tot can be seen in various places around the city, in both green and pink, but this fella on Houston is the one to watch out for. The Dallas-born, culture-jamming English pulls no punches with this large-scale mural, another potent example of his theory of POPaganda.