Actress Tilda Swinton has taken to sleeping in a glass box at the Museum of Modern Art atrium. It’s part of a performance called “The Maybe,” which means that Swinton appears on random days without even museum staff knowing when she might appear. And it has New York abuzz.
As we listen to the accolades for the Oscar-winning actress’ public napping, it gives us the same feeling we get when we listen to Andrew Cuomo explain away the tax hikes in his most recent budget.
Indeed, we suspect that most people will agree that the two performances have much in common.
First, both require New Yorkers to believe something that runs counter to all notions of common sense. In Swinton’s case, it’s that what she’s giving us by sleeping in a human-sized fish tank is serious art. In the governor’s case, it’s the idea that extending the state’s high taxes instead of getting rid of them will somehow be good for our already struggling businesses.
Second, we suspect that when most ordinary people look at Swinton and Cuomo, they marvel that people can get paid for doing what they do: Swinton, for literally sleeping on the job; Cuomo, for insisting to anyone who will listen that his new budget “does an amazing amount of work for us.”
And finally, deep down, aren’t we all left with the uneasy suspicion the fabled emperor must have had when he was persuaded to parade through the streets naked — that what we’re told is smart and sophisticated is really just a swindle?