urban ku # 36
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 08:56AM 
Betty Beaver's Truck Stop & Diner - the big picture • click on photo to embiggen itJust thought that I'd throw this into the Jeff Wall pot - Joe Reifer wrote (on civilized ku #12: "Can I borrow your Godzilla? As soon as I'm done with my MFA, I'm going to painstakingly recreate a replica of your living room in my studio. The twist is, everything will be a replica of your house except for the Godzilla, which will actually be your Godzilla.
In the meantime, I recommend that the future viewers of this work get an advanced degree in film, with a specialization in Japanese monster movies. That way you can understand the exact placement of the Godzilla in my photograph. It really wasn't until I read Baudrillard that I was able to grasp the complexities of Mothra's role in Destroy All Monsters.
The images will be presented on a Godzilla like scale. The transparencies will be printed at a size of 100 stories tall and mounted to the side of skyscrapers. They will be backlit by having all the lights in the building turned on. Special bulbs will be used in every lighting fixture.
Every person in every office will be replaced with someone from central casting who looks startlingly like the person they're playing. I will hire a photographer that looks like me to take the photograph. When my hired replacement says "Action," the actors will turn on all the lights in the building for exactly 15 seconds."
publisher's response: Joe, just let me know when you're ready, MFA in hand. In the interim, I'll get every Japanese monster movie I can lay my hands on and see if I can enroll in a Film Studies program soon.
I assume I'll receive a nice discount on the $2,000,000 (artflation) price tag for your art-using-photography since I supplied the godzilla.
Reader Comments (5)
I'll have my assistant's doppelganger contact you regarding the godzilla usage fee terms.
Cheers,
Joe
Can we get someone hot to play gravitas in the negotiations?
How about Billy Bob Thorton?
Or like my wife, who thinks Mark Harmon is hot.
Update: This project update just in after reading photographer Alec Soth's analysis of Jeff Wall vs. Jesse "the Body" Ventura. The photographer in my project will now be played by a Jesse "the Body" Ventura impersonator.