What's With the New Statue at One of New York City’s State Courthouses?

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
—Exodus 32:1-4

So a New York City state courthouse has a new statue. It’s rather hard to describe. It looks a bit like an ancient idol, half-buried in the desert sands in a hidden ruined temple. Or maybe something you would find at Indiana Jones’ garage sale. If you took an Oscar, a carving of a Baphomet, a Cthulhu action figure, Princess Leia’s hair from Star Wars, and a member of the Borg Collective and added Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and a giant squid, and then ran them through a compactor, you might have something close to the statue “NOW” created by artist Shahzia Sikander.

The creation is eight feet tall, bronzed, and is of what appears to be an at least semi-naked woman standing in a lotus blossom. Tentacles branch out from her shoulders and end at her torso. Also noteworthy is the statue’s hair, which looks essentially like giant ram’s horns. It has been installed on top of the courthouse.

Traditionally, figures of famous lawgivers throughout world history have graced the courthouse, including Moses, Zoroaster, and Justinian the Great. The Blaze notes that in 1955 a statue of Mohammed was removed because of the Islamic prohibition against depictions of the Prophet. Now, “NOW” stands in Mohammed’s empty spot. I am sure that Muslims everywhere are asking the same question as the rest of us: What the hell is that?

It would appear that “NOW” is a tribute both to women and abortion. Sharp-eyed viewers may notice the lace collar, which is an homage to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Fox News said that Sikander stated that there is an “urgent and necessary cultural reckoning underway as New York reconsiders traditional representations of power in public spaces and recasts civic structures to better reflect 21st-century social mores.”

According to Fox, “NOW” has not exactly received the warmest of welcomes. Elevate Beauty CEO & Founder Amanda Ensing tweeted, “NYC Courthouse has put up a gold horned ‘goddess’ statue to symbolize resistance & abortion rights. It literally looks like a demon. America loves celebrating death.” New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino queried, “Was there any public input whatsoever before a satanic golden medusa demon with tentacle arms was installed atop a downtown courthouse?”

However, Claire Bishop, professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York suggested, “Maybe she can help channel us back to reinstating Roe v. Wade.” Seems legit. The ancient Canaanites sacrificed children to an idol of the god Moloch. America has been doing that for years. It just lacked an official altar with an idol. Until now.