#Comedian seeks permit for pile of poop sculpture

If you thought “Fearless Girl” was a bad look for the Wall Street bull, wait till you see this.

The latest playful addition to Arturo Di Modica’s “Charging Bull” sculpture in downtown Manhattan involves a four-foot, smiling pile of poop that creator comedian Ryan Dee hopes to make a more permanent part of the scenery.

Dee —  who has discreetly placed the cartoonish, bronze-colored sculpture behind the bull several times this year already —  says he plans to ask the New York City Parks Department for a permit to officially display the sculpture at least one day a year.
“I would like to put it there with a proper permit,” he said. “I would love to do this annually.”

Of course, we’ve seen this show before and it didn’t end well. In March 2017, State Street placed a bronze ponytailed girl statue with hands on hips to face the 7,100 pound “Raging Bull.” The “Fearless Girl” statue by artist Kristen Visbal became an instant tourist and social media hit for symbolizing female empowerment, but it was criticized as a marketing stunt and ultimately moved in 2018.

Dee’s work also has its detractors. “This only encourages other a–holes to do something inappropriate to The Bull,” Bowling Green Association President Arthur Piccolo told The Post, saying he didn’t want Dee getting any publicity for his disrespectful work.

While Dee’s pile of feces  doesn’t appear to be attracting the kind of attention “Fearless Girl” did, it had its share of fans — and double takes — on Monday, when he covertly displayed it for several hours.

“I love it,” Toni Sims from Riverside, Calif., who was taking pictures with her husband by Dee’s sculpture said. “It fits the current times.”

Dee says he’s comfortable if viewers see the sculpture, which he describes as “whimsical,” as a comment on Wall Street greed. He hung a sign off a pipe next to his sculpture saying, “Please Clean Up After Your Pets.”

Young people are drawn to it, he said. “Kids freak out,” Dee said.

Dee says he is aiming to get a city permit to display the foam-and-plaster creation, which he spent months designing and crafting before handing it off to artist Paige Tooker to paint, starting next January.

“A year is a good amount of time to push it through,” he said. “I’m trying to do this the right way.”