- Portal art installation is a virtual bridge between the Big Apple and Dublin
- Bad actors have taken over the project, showing obscenities on screen.
Obscene behavior is on full display at the ‘portal’ art installation connecting New York City and Dublin, with one woman shutting down the stream after flashing her breasts.
The futuristic sculpture forms a 24/7 virtual bridge that livestreams life from across the Atlantic, but many locals on both sides have abandoned the technology.
The New York City Portal is located in front of the Flatiron building on Fifth Avenue and the Dublin building on O’Connell Street, in front of the GPO and the Spire.
Since it went live on May 8, viewers have been quick to turn the well-intentioned project into a hotbed of misconduct.
Social media has been flooded with videos of people showing their naked bottoms or tops and allegedly consuming illegal substances.
Onlyfans model Ava Louise posted a video of herself lifting her top and showing her breasts to the portal with her back naked in front of the New York City crowd.
The stream appeared to shut down after Louise (pictured) was caught showing off Dublin, with one person telling her boyfriend “it’s so unfortunate people aren’t acting in the best way.”
Another video posted on Instagram showed a man on the Dublin side snorting what appeared to be cocaine.
OnlyFans model Ava Louise posted a video of herself lifting her top and showing her breasts to the portal with her back naked in front of the New York City crowd.
“I thought the people of Dublin deserved to see my two homegrown potatoes in New York,” Louise said.
The stream appeared to shut down after Louise was caught showing off Dublin, with one person telling her boyfriend: “It’s so unfortunate people aren’t acting in the best way.”
Another video posted on Instagram showed a man on the Dublin side inhaling an unknown substance and saying: “What a day, what a city, New York never sleeps.”
The usual sight of people waving from the historic Irish capital was interrupted just hours after the portal opened by a close-up of a man’s phone.
It first showed ‘RIP Popsmoke’, in reference to American rapper Bashar Barakah Jackson, who was shot dead in a home invasion on February 19, 2020.
Five men broke into Jackson’s Los Angeles home demanding jewelry and shot him three times with a Beretta M92 when he tried to fight them.
The Irishman then switched views to a video of the World Trade Center towers burning and billowing with black smoke during the 9/11 attack.
Another video showed a woman being dragged out of the portal by police after rubbing herself against the screen.
“She was basically there for about 20 minutes very drunk and banging and grinding on the door before the guards came in,” the person who filmed it explained.
Less extreme was an Irishman who greeted the dozens of Americans on the other side, before turning around and mocking them.
Another man held up a swastika on his phone and a lot of middle fingers were exchanged on both sides.
An Irishman changed his view to a video of the World Trade Center towers burning and billowing with black smoke during the 9/11 attack.
Another video showed a woman being dragged out of the portal by police after rubbing herself against the screen.
The exhibits will run through the fall, but no official end date has been announced.
“Portals are an invitation to meet people across borders and differences and to experience our world as it really is: united and one,” said Benediktas Gylys, Lithuanian artist and founder of The Portal.
Gylys first thought of the concept in 2016, when a spiritual experience led him to see the planet through a different lens and he developed a need to “counter polarizing ideas” and find a way for people from different cultures to communicate. .
It provided the majority of the funds needed to build the first two portals in collaboration with a team from VilniusTech University in Lithuania.
The first two portals opened in May 2021 in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and the Polish city of Lublin.