Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Study For An End Of The World No. 2

In March of 1962 Swiss artist Jean Tinguely was invited by NBC to Las Vegas, NV to do one of his metamechanic art installations.  Tinguely was best known for his self destroying kinetic art or, as the average person would say, "blowing a bunch of shit up in public".  His 1960 piece Homage to New York had partially failed in front of a large crowd at The Museum of Modern Art so you can imagine how he felt while working on Study for an End of the World No. 2 a mere two years later.  Luckily, photographer Allan Grant was on hand to document the entire thing for Life Magazine.  While in Las Vegas Tinguely and his entourage went to the city landfill to gather necessary materials and stayed at The Flamingo to assemble some of the work itself aka party their asses off.  Regardless of how you feel about Dadaism there is no denying that Tinguely was as badass as he was crazy.  One man's trash...


[All pictures courtesy of Life Magazine.]

-L.A.S

13 comments:

  1. Why is it that every time I hit up the Olive Garden, I can't decide whether or not to order the garden or caesar salad? It helps to numb the pain knowing that an endless supply of crusty bread is at my disposal, not to mention the CRISPY, gooey goodness that is the apple crumble. But I digress... What would you do?

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  2. Garden salad, hands down. I mean, you might pay a little more, but you'll sleep sound—knowing you made the RIGHT decision. However, all bets are off if they don't have thousand island dressing.

    Can I get an amen, Lawrence?

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  3. I dunno...I think caesar salad is the healthier option and best bang for your buck.

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  4. If you're counting calories, it would be a more viable option to opt for the garden salad with the dressing on the side. Just sayin'...

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  5. Olive Garden makes me blow up the toilet bowl Jean Tinguely style.

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  6. On my last visit to the Olive Garden I ordered the garden salad, sans cucumbers, and to my delight I wasn't charged extra for replacing the standard caesar salad. Sometimes in life you experience a perk. It definitely made my night!

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  7. If you're looking to cut calories, it probably is in your best interest to avoid Olive Garden all together.

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  8. The Enthusiast is right on the mark. I had the cheese tortellini a few nights ago and I payed the price. I must have been up half the night with explosive diarrhea. The only plus was that I was able to catch up on my blog scrolling.

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  9. http://www.phfilms.com/index.php/phf/film/breaking_it_up_at_the_museum/

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  10. Conundrum- You see what you started?

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  11. I like how The Enthusiast touched on both topics so masterfully in a single comment. The way he used his personal experiences with Olive Garden to describe the work of the subject of the post was truly inspiring.

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  12. When visiting any eating establishment, I practice strict adherence to my beer and ice cream diet, the Olive Garden not excluded.

    http://astro.berkeley.edu/~gmarcy/thermal/tpteacher/jokes/icecream.html

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  13. Lawrence- Who knew my debacle would turn into madness?

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