New York Wheel

Tipper and See-saw is a public art proposal for the New York Wheel on Staten Island. As one boards the New York Wheel we’ll travel back in time to the 17th century to learn more about a little known piece of history about the Tulip when buyers in the Netherlands were going wild for tulip bulbs, creating the first ever speculative market and subsequent crash.

Tulip Mania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637. Our proposal seeks to make a large graphic installation made from Tulips showcasing the rise and fall of the Tulip price.

At the peak of tulip mania, in March 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsworker.

It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble (or economic bubble),[although some researchers have noted that the Kipper-und Wipperzeit (literally Tipper and See-saw) episode in 1619–22, a Europe-wide chain of debasement of the metal content of coins to fund warfare, featured mania-like similarities to a bubble. The term “tulip mania” is now often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble when asset prices deviate from intrinsic values.

The visitor will be able to experience the installation from above and below as one learns about this fascinating period in history.