Fuck, I Need Funding
Hey
Austinites...have you ever been traveling down Lamar at 3rd and seen some
reflective blue signs on display?
Or
maybe you've seen them at night...
Oooh!
The blue distracts from the bum funk on the walls!
This
was a public art project called "Moments", which was designed by
Austin artist Carl Trominski. Carl said the purpose of this art is to show a
transition from urban life in downtown Austin into nature (Town Lake area).
Whatever,
hippie. They're a bunch of blue road signs that reflect color when headlights
hit them. Whoop-de-fucking-do. I don't think anyone's ever driven down Lamar
and said, "Hey...those must symbolize our journey from the man-made part
of town into nature." Probably because if your idea of nature is Town
Lake, you need to get the shit out of Travis County once in a while. Someone
might get that if this was done in 1976, when south of Town Lake was fucking
rural. You hit Barton Springs Road...you still have 15 minutes before you're
out of town.
My
girl Steph, who knows more about art than I do: "There's nothing about his
'sculpture' which suggests that this was the point of his work. Perhaps if it
went from those road-sign-looking things into a more organic shape(actually
suggesting the nature), his work would make a little more sense...especially to
people here who don't know much about art.
"Let's
say there are 8 of those signs, and they slowly progress in increments from
blue street-sign-looking thing into...oh, i don't know....animal shapes. Maybe
a salamander...the fucking hippies here have such a hard-on about it, that
would be kinda cool, so it went rectangle--salamander in 8 easy steps. That
would have looked cool, could still have been made with the same materials, and
wouldn't have cost much more...except in him having to be a tiny bit more
literal in what his idea was. It's this sort of thing that makes people think
they hate art, when they don't. They hate poorly executed art. Well, they
aren't alone, because i hate it too, and people look at those stupid things and
say, 'That's art? my kid could make that!' and they dismiss it."
So
why am I bringing this up now since it's been around for 3 years? Because I
just discovered something: the project was funded by designated motel/hotel bed
tax money from visitors to Austin that is supposed to be used to bring tourism
to the city. You know how much it cost? $45,000. Seriously.
"Hey,
out-of-towners! Come see what happens when a pretentious art fag takes a shit
and hangs it up!"
I gotta say..."Skullfuck the
babysitter" is just as artistic as blue goddamn traffic signs. I need to
figure out how to bullshit. If anyone has ideas on how I can get that kind of
cash, let's go for it. All I need is $20 grand. Grants or sugar mommas...I'll
go either way.