12 December 1996

Unsatisfactory Impersonation

A huge new piece by Edward Kienholz has just gone on exhibit here. The huge construction, 280 sq. ft. of downtown, Rexburg, ID, is mounted in a billboard near the football stadium.

Of course, a new piece by Edward Kienholz is an oxymoron since the artist died a couple of years ago. (I believe he was buried sitting in the driver's seat of his favorite car with a bottle of very good wine in the glove compartment--a damn good idea if you ask me.) 280 sq. ft. of downtown, Rexburg, ID is the product of a multinational tobacco company's advertising agency.

I couldn't figure out why I disliked 280 sq. ft. of downtown, Rexburg, ID until I remembered one of David Bailey's observations.

"Photography isn't art. Nor is painting. Nor is anything. It's whether the person doing it is an artist or not. I mean, if you see a picture of an old man, you say it's a picture of an old man. And then if someone says that's Stravinsky, then it isn't just an old man anymore. You think of it as a photograph of Stravinsky. And then if someone says that it is a Richard Avedon picture of Stravinsky, you say Ahhhhhhh."

And when they say Marlboro I get sick.