Double Talk!
Yellow YO/OY sculpture is bright
addition to 5th & Market Streets
YO faces the Independence Visitor Center one block away. Photo by Jim Murphy, author of Real Philly History, Real Fast.
Locals and tourists alike are enjoying a colorful, 2-sided sculpture in front of the newly named Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
Created by Deborah Kass, an artist based in Brooklyn, N.Y., the sculpture says “YO” when looked at from one side, and “OY” on the other.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Frank Kummer says museum officials originally planned to have the OY facing out, “but decided YO is more welcoming.”
I would agree. YO also directly faces the Independence Visitor Center at 6th and Market, providing a real Philly shout-out to people coming from the building.
YO is a common greeting in Philly and some other cities. OY is a popular Yiddish term used in Jewish and other American cultures.
The museum hopes the sculpture will remain after a planned 12-month run here. It’s on temporary loan right now.
Interesting Oddities:
Yo is included in one of the top movie quotes of all time. Sylvester Stallone said, “Yo, Adrian” in the first Rocky movie. The phrase ranks 80th on AFI’s list of the 100 best movie quotes. Yo also connects this sculpture with the Rocky statue at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Kass, 70 years of age, has early Philadelphia ties. She recalls buying her first art book at the Philadelphia Museum of Art while visiting a friend in the city at age 17. Now an accomplished artist, she’s exhibiting her own sculpture in Philly. What a nice circle-of-life story.
This is the third version of YO/OY. One is now in the Brooklyn Museum, and another at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center, says Kummer.
FAST FACTS
Artwork: YO and OY
Location: Southeast corner of 5th and Market Street in Old City, Philadelphia
Artist: Deborah Kass
Color: Lamborghini Yellow
Dimensions: 8-feet tall, 16-feet wide, and 5-feet deep
Some Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movie_Quotes
https://jnews.uk/new-oy-yo-sculpture-in-philadelphia-10-things-to-know/
https://streetsdept.com/2022/05/02/oy-yo-installed-in-philly/
https://theweitzman.org/oy-yo/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075148/characters/nm0000230
https://www.inquirer.com/photo/oy-yo-sculpture-jewish-independence-mall-deborah-kass-20220502.html
OY, often used as Oy Vey, is a popular Yiddish term expressing dismay or exasperation. Photo by Jim Murphy.