You’ve probably seen the image. A massive, glowing, blue-skinned face with a flickering tongue and a crown of skulls, staring down from the very top of the New York City skyline. It looks like something straight out of a high-budget dystopian movie, or maybe a fever dream.
That was Kali.
Even though it happened back in 2015, the "Kali New York Empire State Building" event remains one of the most polarizing and misunderstood public art displays in history. People are still arguing about it on Reddit. Conspiracy theorists still use it as "evidence" for whatever they're selling. But the reality is actually much more interesting than the internet rumors. It wasn't about religion, at least not in the way most people think. It was a wake-up call that used the world's most famous skyscraper as a megaphone.
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The Night Manhattan Stared Into the Void
On August 1, 2015, the south side of the Empire State Building didn't just glow with its usual white lights. Instead, it became a 350-foot tall digital canvas.
The event was called "Projecting Change." It was the brainchild of filmmaker Louie Psihoyos—the guy who directed the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove—and his team at the Oceanic Preservation Society. They teamed up with Obscura Digital to pull off something that had never been done on that scale.
For three hours, images of endangered species raced across the building.
- Cecil the Lion (who had just been killed by a hunter in Zimbabwe, sparking global outrage).
- Snow leopards.
- Golden tamarins.
- Massive blue whales.
It was a parade of ghosts. Creatures we are losing at an alarming rate. But then, the show reached its climax. The animal faces faded, and the fierce visage of the Hindu goddess Kali took over.
Who Was Behind the Art?
The specific image wasn't just a random stock photo of a goddess. It was a digital painting by the visionary artist Android Jones. If you’ve ever been to Burning Man or a Tipper show, you know his style. It’s psychedelic, intricate, and deeply spiritual.
Jones didn't choose Kali because he wanted to convert New Yorkers to Hinduism. He chose her because of what she represents: Time and Change. In Hindu iconography, Kali is the "Mother of the Universe," but she’s also the destroyer of ego. She represents the fierce power of nature. The message was pretty blunt: if we keep destroying the planet, Nature (in her Kali form) will eventually destroy us. It was a "fierce avatar" meant to fight the darkness of extinction and pollution.
Why Some People Totally Freaked Out
Look, if you're walking down 34th Street and you suddenly see a giant face of a "destruction goddess" on the Empire State Building, you might have some questions.
The backlash was instant.
- The "Satanic" Panic: Some religious groups saw the skulls and the tongue and immediately jumped to the conclusion that New York was being dedicated to a demon.
- Cultural Appropriation: On the flip side, some practitioners of Sanatana Dharma felt that using a sacred deity to talk about climate change felt a bit... trendy?
- The "Evil Buildings" Crowd: To this day, the image is a staple on the r/evilbuildings subreddit. Honestly, you can't blame them. A 100-meter-tall face looking down at you is objectively intimidating.
But here’s the thing: Kali isn't "evil." In Indian philosophy, destruction is necessary for creation. You can't plant a garden until you clear the weeds. The organizers were trying to say that we need to "destroy" our current way of living—our waste, our greed, our apathy—to make room for a sustainable future.
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Beyond the Projection: The Kali Uchis Connection
If you're searching for this today, you might get a little confused. In early 2026, the term "Kali New York Empire State Building" started trending again for a completely different reason.
Grammy-winning artist Kali Uchis visited the building to celebrate her album Sincerely. She did a listening party on the 86th floor, wore a stunning pink outfit, and basically owned the observatory for a night.
So, depending on who you are, "Kali at the ESB" either means a cosmic warning about the end of the world or a really cool pop star promoting a chart-topping album. New York contains multitudes, right?
The Lasting Legacy of Projecting Change
So, did it work? Did a giant projection of a goddess save the snow leopard?
Not exactly. But it did something arguably more difficult: it broke through the noise. We live in a world where we scroll past tragedy every three seconds. It takes something massive—something 1,250 feet tall—to make us stop and look up.
The "Projecting Change" event helped launch the documentary Racing Extinction. It showed that public spaces could be used for more than just corporate logos. It proved that art could be uncomfortable and still be effective.
What You Can Actually Do About It
If the story of the Kali projection resonates with you, don't just leave it as a cool trivia fact. The whole point was to spark action.
- Check out the work of the Oceanic Preservation Society. They are still using high-tech art to talk about the "Sixth Extinction."
- Look into Android Jones. His art explores the intersection of technology and spirituality in a way that feels very "2026."
- Think about your own "internal Kali." What parts of your life or habits need to be "destroyed" to make room for something better? It sounds deep, but that was the literal intention of the artists.
The Kali New York Empire State Building display wasn't a curse or a stunt. It was a mirror. It asked us if we liked what we were doing to the world. A decade later, the image still hasn't faded from our collective memory because we still haven't quite answered that question.
Start by looking into local conservation efforts in your own city. You don't need a skyscraper to make a point; sometimes a community garden or a plastic-free initiative is exactly the kind of "fierce change" the world needs right now.