Are house and trees covered in aluminum foil legal? City officials check the books
Piotr Janowski says the heavy-duty aluminum foil he recently unrolled onto his new rental home in Tarpon Springs, Florida, is the equivalent of gold leaf.
Others aren’t convinced.
At least one unidentified neighbor has complained to Janowski’s landlord and city code enforcement about the house and one or more aluminum-foil-encased trees outside. Nearby trees also feature six ear-like attachments constructed of chicken wire, covered with—what else?—aluminum foil. However, an arborist said the trees aren’t in danger, and Tarpon Springs officials are still researching the legality of the art project, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
“This is art,” says Janowski ,a 53-year-old graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “In their thick, bureaucratic books, I’m sure they have nothing against this.”
He has previously shown his work at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago and hopes the Tarpon Springs house will help him convince museums to let him mount similar exhibits elsewhere. He plans to take the foil off in about a month, the newspaper reports.
Neighbor Candy Labbate thought Janowski was working to enhance his Internet signal when she first spotted the chicken wire. “To each his own,” she told the Times.
