Pregnant Amanda Palmer Recreates Naked Damien Hirst Statue in New York City

IT’S HAPPENING @NYPL {@HayleyFiasco for AFP} pic.twitter.com/2R5IgNkSqL

— Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer) August 20, 2015

On Thursday afternoon, the New York Public Library mysteriously tweeted that Amanda Palmer had a surprise in store for whoever showed up at their main outpost in midtown Manhattan at 6 p.m.

“Bring a children’s book to donate!” the library tweeted, along with a photo of the singer holding a copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

A large crowd gathered outside of the library that evening, and as promised, Palmer showed up.

The musician, who is eight months pregnant, appeared as a living rendition of Verity, a statue by Damien Hirst, a fellow artist equally known for extravagance. Bronze paint covered the right half of Palmer’s body, which also held a sword. The left half was painted with internal anatomy, including muscles, bones, and her unborn baby. While Hirst’s statue holds the scales of justice in its left hand, Palmer held her signature ukulele instead.

“I’m doing a kind of goodbye thing before going off to birth this baby,” announced Palmer on her website before the event. “This is a slightly weird one, but bear with me… it’ll be worth it, I swear.”

The performance, along with the accompanying book drive, was organized to promote the New York Public Library’s early literacy program. Palmer’s husband Neil Gaiman attended the event as well. The two are scheduled to appear at another literary event, the Boston Book Festival, in October.

Before gaining fame with the Dresden Dolls, Palmer, a Lexington native, used to busk in Harvard Square as a living statue, “The Eight-Foot Bride.” She cites the experience as a critical point in her famous TED talk and subsequent book, The Art of Asking.