Snowden image makes brief return appearance at Fort Greene Park

April 8, 2015 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Snowden's bust was taken down from Fort Greene Park, only to be replaced by a hologram. Credit: 'Kyle Depew of the Illuminator Art Collective'

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A day after an unauthorized 100-pound bust of controversial whistleblower Edward J. Snowden was removed from Fort Greene Park, a group of artists projected a hologram of the bust in the exact same location.

A group called the Illuminators recreated the bust electronically for about 20 minutes on Tuesday morning, according to The New York Times. The Times quoted Kyle Depew, a member of group, as saying, “We wanted to further the discussion.”

Fort Greene Park is home to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, which honors American revolutionaries who died during the Revolutionary War on British prison ships docked off the Brooklyn waterfront.

Some see Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, as a hero for exposing illegal actions by the U.S. government, while others see him as a traitor who betrayed his oath to the government. The Society of Old Brooklynites, which has held memorials in the park for the prison ship martyrs since the late 19th century, condemned the artists who created and placed the bust as being disrespectful.