10/5/2004: 30,000 bananas as art
 

http://cellar.org/2004/bananaartist.jpg

This has been Farked but it's such a perfect IotD material, massive food as art.. and one we've covered several times before. In this case it really does seem to be quite a stretch, that this pile of 30,000 bananas in the middle of Trafalgar Square makes an artistic statement of some sort. But perhaps there is a nuance that I can't see in it.

full story

the art happens when the local giant slips on it and breaks his neck....duh.

The art happens as the bananas slowly rot, eventually becoming so rank that nobody wants to visit Trafalgar Square. HAH! Victory over the crass American tourist.

Would they arrest you if you ate one? I mean, they are just dumped there. I imagine Londoners grabbing a bunch as they walk by, and taking them home.

stupid monkeys. if you can't understand the art, then you don't deserve to be told.

Londoners would immediately realize it was art and not take a bunch. Only stupid, crass Americans would do something like that.

To quote John Cage, "I have nothing to say, and I am saying it."

You are forgetting the goldfish in the blender.

I think the real art happens when some smartass decides to go out there in the middle of the night and put condoms on each banana. Then they can claim it's a statement against the sex ed practices of... something, something.

Wouldn't that be 30,000 - 1 = 29,999
He messed up the beautiful art work--now it's just a bunch of bannanas on the ground

30,000 POUNDS OF BANANAS
Harry Chapin


It was just after dark when the truck started down
the hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Carrying thirty thousand pounds (hit it Big John) of bananas.

He was a young driver,
just out on his second job.
And he was carrying the next day's pasty fruits
for everyone in that coal-scarred city
where children play without despair
in backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day
about thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, just about thirty thousand pounds (scream it again, John) .

He passed a sign that he should have seen,
saying "shift to low gear, a fifty dollar fine my friend."
He was thinking perhaps about the warm-breathed woman
who was waiting at the journey's end.
He started down the two mile drop,
the curving road that wound from the top of the hill.
He was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.
Just a few more miles to go,
then he'd go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.
and the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him.
But he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights
delights went through him.
His foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
But the pedal floored easy without a sound.
He said "Christ!"
It was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
He was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
riding on his fear-hunched back
was every one of those yellow green
I'm telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
And he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
as he rode his last ride down.
And he said "God, make it a dream!"
as he rode his last ride down.
And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
and Blue-Crossed seven people.
it was then he lost his head,
not to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
And he slid for four hundred yards
along the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
All those thirty thousand pounds of bananas.

You know the man who told me about it on the bus,
as it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
he shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
and he said (and this is exactly what he said)
"Boy that sure must've been something.
Just imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
Yes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.
Of bananas. Just bananas. Thirty thousand pounds.
of Bananas. not no driver now. Just bananas!"

Magnificent tribute to questionable art. :thumbsup:

After dark, colored spotlights on the ground around the bananas, playing lazily over clouds of swirling,......fruit flies. :corn:

That's the point. In the article, it says that after 3pm, people can come by and take a banana. The art is how it slowly diminishes.
My question is-
It says that leftover bananas will be donated to homeless shelters, etc.
But won't they be rotten by then?

Banana Bread! --- Or, the more useful BananaPhone!

I got a banana boat.....banana soup, banana cocktails, banana splits, banana biscuits, banana bread, banana milk, banana crackers, banana on a stick, banana gumbo, fried banana, stewed banana, baked banana with banana sauce and banana ice cream......ya wanna be the captain of my banana boat? :)

How appeeling. ;)

Doesn't take much to spark a political reaction in Latin America. Or here on the Cellar, for that matter. Hard to believe it's Brittain's favorite food. I thought they only drank tea. And pissed a lot. Fishbone (personally I'd change my name) said: Don't play with your food...... I reckon someone else hauled & stacked these "nanners" for him. Shame,shame,shame. Don't play with your food. Don't make food out of what you play with. After all, The banana IS an American standard. [ weights & measures]. Please don't ask me for the link.

so if you took a dump in the middle of trafalger square, would this be art?

I love London, so I would never do that... my husband posed the question.

:smack:

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

It's a good thing my Dad's not in London now. That exhibit wouldn't last a minute.

With that many bananas, they should put a big pile of Immodium right next to it. Then at least it'd be accurate art. :)

Crap

Next...

The whole point of the concept of a pile of bananas as art is that it's a changing installation piece. Taking a few bananas is part of the piece. I'm not going to touch the stupid crass American comment, but here's a bit of the background story:

"Here in London the bananas are not expected to spark a political reaction - just a hungry one.

From 3pm today anyone who fancies a free snack can take their pick from among the bananas with impunity. In fact, that is the point of the work. Fishbone said: 'It will be a reverse sculptural process. As the bananas are taken away the work is whittled away until it vanishes.' "

And its big yellow (for now) in all that grey. I like that part.

Thank you Els, for the lyrics (The song was the first thing I thought of on seeing the picture).

I had the good fortune of seeing Harry do that live, a year or so before his death.

At first I misread the title - I thought it was 30,000 lbs of Bananas....

I expected to see a smear 400 yards long the hill that leads into Scranton PA

(2 pts to the 1st person who gets the reference without looking it up)

Elspode wins.

that's what I get for not reading the link...

No worries, I got busted for not proofing my post a few images ago. :yelsick:

Now that you know, go down and get yourself some free bananas!

Yup, half cocked again. ;)
BIG yellow.

I'm just glad the guy's not nuts.

I was fortunate enough to see Harry thrice over the years. The biggest single screw up of my entire youthful life was related to Harry, in fact.

It seems he came to KC's Midland Theater, a classic, 1920's movie palace deluxe (since completely and beautifully restored) back in 1974. In those days, concerts weren't quite so militant about enforcing you being in a seat, or coming up to the stage. With Harry's mellow demographic, it was totally cool, as was having a camera. I spent the whole show right on the edge of the stage, knealt down out of deference to the audience, shooting closeup pics of an accomodating Mr. Chapin, who would turn and smile or shoot a thumbs up into the lens for me. It was *awesome* for me, as I did and still do idolize the man.

Fast forward a couple of weeks when I left for California on a post-HS graduation visit to see my estranged father. When we arrived at Lake Tahoe, I opened my camera to load it, noticed there was a roll of film in it already, and had no idea what it could be. My first thought was that it was something left over from my job as a HS photographer, and reasoning that since I was out of school, I just yanked the roll out.

A few weeks later, I remembered that it was the lovingly shot roll of Harry Chapin pics. I was thunderstruck. Stay off the dope, kids.

I actually cried the night I heard Harry had died. He was perhaps the most influential songwriter/musician for me during my late teens. Harry was a wonderful artist and a great humanitarian.

I got to see him do it live too - At FJU in NJ

this kind off art was already done a long time ago, people like my grandfather did it! But than it was with a big bag of bread and some birds!

I was there, pratically everyone was trying to nick a bunch, they just sort of stopped trying to stop people by 3.

Has it turned into a slimy pile of bananaey goo yet? If so, has it gained sentience?

Should've known you were involved. Welcome back, Jag. :)

London commuters are more effective at removing within seconds anything of possible value pratically before it hits the ground, I doubt a single banana had time to go brown. I wasn't there for long, was going to the tate modern to see bags of trash as art rather than bananas.

Oh how I envy the culture available to Europeans. :notworthy

Is that Tate exhibit the same one from which someone mistakenly pulled a bag of trash and was about to throw it away, thinking it was mere trash instead of high art? Saw something in "News of the Weird" about that.

In this case the bananas are still going to the people, so it isnt wasted! But over here they made some artwork with bacon wrapped around some colums at the entrance of the museum! After about 5 days it turned greenish...Really colorfull!

Yea that is on installation they're got at the tate modern at the moment, the artist simply replaced it with another bag of trash, kind of says something. When you think about it though it's not exactly new, I forget the name of the artist who crapped in 60 tins and sealed them somewhere in the 70s as a comment on how stupid some high art was, they now sell for tens of thousands...

Of course don't confuse the tate modern and the tate britain, chalk and cheese.

This is one of the reasons I really don't like much "art".

I really think that if it's called an "installation" it shouldn't be considered "art."

I have a low tolerance for pretentious bullshit.