{"id":850,"date":"2012-04-11T10:15:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T16:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/?p=850"},"modified":"2012-04-11T13:30:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T19:30:48","slug":"guerrilla-art-on-country-club-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/?p=850","title":{"rendered":"Guerrilla Art on Country Club Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

On my way in to work today, I spied something odd sitting at a bus stop at Country Place and Country Club Road. \u00a0Driving by it looked like a person covered in\u00a0cellophane:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"The<\/a><\/dt>\n
The Fat Dunce<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

I instantly thought of Mark Jenkins<\/a>\u00a0and turned around to check it out. \u00a0Parking was kind of\u00a0dicey though, Country Club is a two lane street that is kind of a mess in the morning. \u00a0Props to whoever did this, it certainly was collecting a bunch of stares from the morning commuters that passed by. \u00a0Upon closer inspection, there was a few things that were a little off…time for an\u00a0impromptu art\u00a0critique!<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
X Marks the Spot<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Jekins’\u00a0balloon\u00a0pieces work\u00a0because\u00a0their interaction with the\u00a0surroundings\u00a0is subtle but\u00a0integral to the piece as a whole, the piece\u00a0below is an example:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Mark<\/a><\/dt>\n
Mark Jenkins – Washington, DC<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The bent bus stop becomes the perfect prop for the balloon boy to pull down. \u00a0The\u00a0illusion works\u00a0because the angles and\u00a0proportions are correct fooling your mind into\u00a0believing\u00a0the impossible. \u00a0I had\u00a0initially thought that maybe the\u00a0anonymous artist might have reconstructed the bus stops signage to be incorporated into the message but\u00a0that’s\u00a0not the case. Its a simple advertisement for insurance. \u00a0So what is the\u00a0message here?<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Mixed<\/a><\/dt>\n
Mixed Message<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Scrawled in black sharpie are several words:<\/p>\n

Fat, Disproportional, Dunce, Thunder Thighs, Empty, Cow<\/p>\n

Note, I would have not known this by simply driving by. \u00a0The text isn’t large enough to\u00a0discern from the street. \u00a0The intent may have been to draw the viewer in but without\u00a0adequate parking most people will go on with their lives.<\/p>\n

If you did stop you would notice the figure appears to be female so in that context the words are some sort of play on two possible obvious themes. One, disparaging remarks made unto the\u00a0sculpture as a reflection of the artist being treated by others or Two, a inward projection out, of how the artist feels about\u00a0themselves. There is\u00a0a\u00a0crumpled bag of Funyuns<\/a>\u00a0under its right hand so we might have a clue.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
Yum Funyuns!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Now to me that presents a bit of a problem. Are you fat and have thunder thighs\u00a0because\u00a0you eat junk food all the time? Do you eat junk food\u00a0because\u00a0you feel empty causing you to be fat thus\u00a0fulfilling your our self hate prophecy? Was the Funyuns bag just trash that happened to be there during the installation. \u00a0As the viewer we don’t know. There’s not\u00a0enough information. \u00a0Using big heavy rocks to hold the sculpture in place, breaks up the\u00a0continuity of the\u00a0piece\u00a0as well and distracts from the intended message. \u00a0The black X across the heart may have any number of meanings but the X on the right thigh only confuses that. \u00a0Is the whole thing some sort of “Anti Bully Message” that’s all the rage in schools these days? Who knows.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Moving<\/a><\/dt>\n
Moving on<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

I will say this,\u00a0I did stop and take a look so in that regard the piece was\u00a0successful. Despite some presentation and constructions problems it did make me snap a few pictures and write about it so the joke may be on me. \u00a0Well there may be a few other people who get\u00a0duped into taking a look at it. \u00a0As I was leaving, I heard sirens in the distance but couldn’t place the direction. \u00a0Traveling up Country Club over the Rio Grande bridge,\u00a0an\u00a0ambulance\u00a0passed heading towards the bus stop quickly followed by a fire\u00a0truck. \u00a0I guess somebody else saw it but didn’t have the time top stop and check it out before reporting it to the\u00a0authorities, funny. \u00a0Score one for guerrilla art!<\/p>\n

Full Set of photos here: The Fat Dunce<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On my way in to work today, I spied something odd sitting at a bus stop at Country Place and Country Club Road. \u00a0Driving by it looked like a person covered in\u00a0cellophane: The Fat Dunce I instantly thought of Mark Jenkins\u00a0and turned around to check it out. \u00a0Parking was kind of\u00a0dicey though, Country Club is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[10,136],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-photography","tag-el-paso","tag-guerrilla-art"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1MdZY-dI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}