Press Release
Artist Bio
Sponsorship
Location
Bibliography

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October 4 - 31, 1997

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

40 years to the day after the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space, artist Gregory Green installed Gregnik Proto II, a prototype radio transmitter meticulously modeled after the original Sputnik Satellite in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mounted on a rooftop and visible from street level, this silver orb with five antennas appeared to hover above the neighborhood and broadcasted unedited artist-created messages over a low frequency fm radio signal to Williamsburg residents.

Artist Bio
Gregory Green is known for his bomb "recipes", almost-complete bomb kits and convincingly simple constructions of missiles, quasi-functional nuclear devices and other instruments of terror, most of which are made with materials bought at the corner store. Green explores the boundaries of public and private political power, pointing out that anyone can now take on a position previously reserved for only the strongest of nations. Green has exhibited his work internationally at Feigen Contemporary, New York, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussells, Belgium and arsFutura Gallerie, Zurich Switzerland among other venues.

Sponsorship
Gregnik Proto II is a project of Public Art Fund's In the Public Realm program, a series of site-specific proposals and projects by emerging New York artists.

In the Public Realm is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency, and the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and through generous support from the Greenwall Foundation, the Heathcote Foundation, the Silverweed Foundation and friends of the Public Art Fund.

Location
Gregnik Proto II was located on a rooftop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the corner of Berry and North 11th Streets.