It’s 35 degrees — and there is a naked man standing on a box by the Liberty Bell
A bearded artist in his underwear is shivering on a box by the Liberty Bell, and Philly can’t stop asking questions. Here’s the story behind the performance.
On Thursday, when low temps hit 35 degrees and a wild wind whipped down Market Street, a young man climbed on a box in front of the Liberty bell and stripped to his underwear.
Turns out the the nearly naked man on the box is an artist from Baltimore. His name is Ham. “Like the sandwich,” he said. Standing on a platform in his underwear is, evidently, performance art — a commentary on social media. “Rather than using digital platforms to share art and gain exposure,” Ham told me, “I’ve made a physical platform to stand on in public and talk to strangers.”
In other words, he doesn’t want to be a content creator; he wants to be the content and let others do the creating. And they do. People snap photos of him, take videos of him, and scan the QR code on the corner of his platform, which links to, what else but his Instagram. It’s part performance art, part guerrilla marketing. “I do recognize that as an artist I need to have some form of digital presence,” Ham said, “I just don’t want to be responsible for creating it.” He’d rather shiver.
Ham has been standing on platforms in his underwear on and off for two years in several frigid cities, including New York, Berlin, and a small village in Norway. “I use it as my excuse to travel,” he said.
He also uses it as a way to raise money for an engagement ring for his girlfriend — although that wasn’t the original goal. He only decided to write “engagement ring savings fund” on the side of the platform after he grew tired of explaining to people that he wasn’t freezing in his underwear for money.
“I was like, ‘if people have to have a financial explanation for this, I’ll say it’s an engagement ring fund for my girlfriend,’” he said. Ham wouldn’t disclose how much money he has made, just that it’s “more than you might think,” and enough to afford a custom-designed ring in New York. (I’m guessing at least $2,000.)
Ham is enjoying his time in Philadelphia more than other cities. “This is actually the most fun I’ve had in terms of the quality of interaction and number of people,” he said, visibly shivering. Several people have approached him to ask him what he is doing. Two national parks officers checked in after receiving calls of concern. They offered him clothes; he declined. A police officer stopped by to ask if he was OK. One woman wanted to know whether he was promoting a cause.
But the number one question Ham gets from strangers? “Is this a fantasy football punishment?"
No. It is art.
If you’re interested in seeing a nearly naked man shiver on a box, Ham will be at the Liberty Bell all day Friday and Saturday. He leaves around 4:30 p.m., partly because he’s noticed people don’t like to talk to him as much once it’s dark.
Understandable.