Joey Skaggs, Editor - The Art of the Prank

April 22, 2007January 15, 2019

Get a little tail for your dog

Clement Eloy, an innovative French designer, whose site feeladdicted.com has some interesting product concepts, has created the Hotdoll for your horny hound.

“Get a little tail for your dog” was the tag line for the Cathouse for Dogs, a hoax I perpetrated in 1976. Given the enormous public response (in some cases outcry), and based on the volume of serious inquiries I received at the time, I bet there’s a real market for this product. At any rate, it’s safer, cleaner and more affordable. Plus, your dog doesn’t have to share unless he wants to.

Thank you: jokestarter.com

April 10, 2007January 15, 2019

Saul Steinberg: Illuminations

Here’s a review of the Saul Steinberg: Illuminations retrospective currently at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, on exhibit April 6 through June 24, 2007 posted by Heather Goss in the DCist. Steinberg (1914-1999) was an incisive satirist and artist who’s illustrations and drawings were featured in dozens of books and in countless New Yorker magazines. -JS

Saul Steinberg @ Smithsonian American Art Museum
By DCist contributor Sriram Gopal

An exhibit designed as career retrospective must be a daunting proposition, especially when focused on a prolific artist whose output ranged over sixty years. Too many pieces, and the exhibit becomes bloated. Too few, and the audience does not get an accurate cross section of the artist”s work. Thankfully, the curators of Saul Steinberg: Illuminations, on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, threaded this needle. In doing so, they have mounted a captivating and wholly satisfying exhibition of one of the most insightful American artists of the 20th century.

Steinberg (1914-1999) is best known for his illustrations that appeared in The New Yorker, many of which are included in this collection. The exhibit includes over 100 drawings as well as collages and sculptural assemblages. A native of Romania who became a U.S. citizen in 1942, he described his work as occupying the space “between perception and understanding.” His proclamation that the 20th century was “an immense prank” sums up his somewhat cynical outlook. Continue reading “Saul Steinberg: Illuminations”

April 8, 2007January 15, 2019

Welcome Home, Dear

Artist Ellen Moynihan and three artist friends, in a clever and bold juxtiposition of reality, took interior decorating to new lows — the New York subway system. They transformed an F train into a comfortable replica of a living room.

The New York Post covered the story:

RAILROAD APARTMENT: HOME DECORATORS AMBUSH F TRAIN
By Jeremy Olshan, Transit Reporter
New York Post

April 7, 2007 — Interior decorators hijacked an F train yesterday morning, transforming Car 5929 into a cozy living room with curtains, flowers, throw pillows and rugs.

The four artists behind this guerrilla installation, dubbed “No Train Like Home,” boarded the F in Coney Island at 7:38 a.m. carrying brown paper shopping bags filled with decorations and lots of double-sided tape.

As soon as the doors closed, the foursome started covering up every ad in the car with Andy Warhol prints and images of bookshelves.

They left the subway maps alone… For more of this story and more photos, check out The New York Post.

April 7, 2007January 15, 2019

0100101110101101.org

Franco and Eva Mattes are, in their own words, “a couple of restless European con-artists who use non-conventional communication tactics to obtain the largest visibility with the minimal effort.”

Their current work, involves a synthetic performance in the 3D online digital world of Second Life.

A past project called Nikeground, or, as their Web site says, “The Hardly Believable Nike Ground Trick,” was a “hyper-real theatrical performance”. Continue reading “0100101110101101.org”

April 5, 2007January 15, 2019

Straight from the pranksters bag of tricks…

Here’s an example of how a carefully placed falsified document can foment a conspiracy theory. But remember, conspiracy theories are generally neither completely true nor completely false. That’s what gives them legs. The links here show the story from two opposing points of view: