Art Gallery Owner Arrested For Placing Sculpture Of Heroin Spoon In Front Of Purdue Pharma

Apparently, you can now get charged with a felony if you drop off a spoon in front of a building. Granted, this was no ordinary spoon. This was an elegant 10-foot long, 800-pound full metal sculpture of a heroin spoon twisted upon itself. The work of art, hand-crafted by Domenic Esposito, a Boston-based artist, appears to embody the mind-bending, soul-disfiguring effects of heroin addiction. And it was placed in front of a certain building to send a message.

Gallery Owner Fights For Justice

Fernando Luis Alvarez, the owner of the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut,  dropped the sculpture off in front of the headquarters of Purdue Pharma in order to bring attention to the opioid epidemic in the country and, more specifically, to stoke a movement to bring those responsible for it to justice. Purdue Pharma is the corporation that began in 1996 flooding the streets of the United States with the drug Oxycontin. Placing the sculpture — which Esposito says would have been even bigger, had he not needed to transport it to Connecticut in his trailer — in front of Purdue’s headquarters was meant to underscore that many heroin users first get hooked on prescription painkillers. Esposito’s brother, who has struggled with addiction for 14 years, is one such person. (Read more)

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