http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/arts/ ... 5koon.html

This was in today's Times. Artist Jeff Koons (who is notorious for "factory production" of his "artwork", and who was once married to an Italian pornstar/member of Parliament) plans to build a 161 ft high outdoor sculpture in LA at the County Museum of Art--- a crane dangling a full-sized "replica of a 1940s locomotive" by the cab, front-end down. The image shows what appears to be a Santa Fe 4-8-4, much like 3751.

Quotes: Mr. Koons imagines periodic chugging noises. “It will be absolutely so authentic a performance of a train,” he said, that it could fool “an engineer who’s worked on a train his whole life.”

At the talk Mr. Govan compared the project to the Eiffel Tower, expressing hope that the piece would become a landmark for Los Angeles. “The beautiful thing,” he said, “is that we would see it from the 10 freeway and from downtown.”

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has received $1 million from the Annenberg Foundation for feasibility and engineering studies. The sculpture also has the backing of Eli Broad, the Los Angeles billionaire and trustee of the museum, who is giving it more than $50 million for a new contemporary art building, to open next year. Mr. Broad owns 20 works by Mr. Koons.

End quotes.

I guess that a real one is not "art".

Gee, wonder if Koons would like to dangle a spare RS-3 from a crane in New York? For the right price.....

And the weird get weirder.

And people fall all over themselves to give money to these loons for their scrapmetal.
We have a steel walled rusty piece in St. Louis called the Serra Sculpture that is a joke. Drunks whizz all over it and it's a rusty eyesore, but the "gifted" ones pretend to understand it. As the saying goes, I don't know much about art, but I know what I like.

Since he plans to build a full size replica; maybe we could hijack this concept, and have him build a full replica of a NYC J Class Hudson or one of the other "dream locomotives" we have batted around on this board before about building. Build it functional enough so that after the city or gallery gets tired of it and it is taken down, it could then have a second life as a RR museum piece or even an operational locomotive.

Hey, we can dream can't we? The concept reminds of me of the Kriegslok locomotive displayed upside down in Konrad Adenauer Platz, in Marl, Germany as a statement against war. One could argue that like Thomas, the Polar Express and other non-purist or art-related items; anything that keeps steam trains in the public eye is free publicity for railroad preservation.

In closing, I certainly wouldn't want to be the engineer on that replica, it will be hard to keep the crown sheet covered. :0

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

Deviant railroad/art stories:

About the time we escaped from Michigan State University for Owosso with Pere Marquette 1225, the school opened a new performing arts center with a "sculpture" made of large steel cylinders in front. Kind of like a giant smokebox. Someone wrote in to the university newspaper, saying approximately, "Now that the railroad club has left with their locomotive, they should be made to come back and clean up the leftover parts in front of the Wharton Center."

I'm told (but can't verify) that it was once proposed that the E-8 at the National New York Central Museum at Elkhart be stuffed and mounted on end. Presumably the blunt end, although an E-unit half-buried nose down in the dirt along the lines of the "Cadillac Ranch" artwork, and painted for Penn Central, could be a more meaningful monument.

Seriously, I'd like to turn the tables on these art guys and make an exhibition called, "The Found Sculpture of the Railroad," consisting of such fascinating shapes as

A switch frog
A freight-car truck sideframe
A car wheel, maybe sliced to show the cross section
An injector
Car springs
A Diesel crankshaft
A drawbar (in raised "clenched fist" salute mode)
A signal head or semaphore
Brakewheels through the ages

and so on. You get the idea, and probably have more and better examples. Beats most abstract art hands down.

Deviant art (railroad division)--

Actually Aarne, about 1990, RMNE did something like that. I was asked by the dainty and rather reserved curator of the College of New Rochelle (Catholic and all women), to submit some items for a railroad art exhibit called "Steel Wheels" (how original). In addition to the usual 16x20 B&W prints of closeups of 759's main driver, posters of SNCF and LNER vacation trains etc., the RMNE crew hauled in one 33" cast-iron wheelset, three 6x8 ties, two five foot sections of 80 lb rail and a spike maul, which we proceeded to assemble right in the main gallery. It was the highlight of the show and got prominent mention in all the press coverage. "Ya want steel wheels? We GOT steel wheels and we'll bring 'em!"

I wish I had thought of the "Type E Smash-the State" coupler idea, though.

The whole damn railroad IS sculpture!!

What a great opportunity to fund the building of a full size replica of a DL-109, hang it from a crane for a few months, and then take it out and run it. Talk about a piece of artwork, steam locomotive construction technology applied to a diesel.

It is amazing such people can find funds for this kind of idiocy while half the world's children go to bed hungry and do not have clean water to drink. It reminds me of a wry Simpsons episode I saw recently, in which Springfield was clamoring for an art museum to revive its economy. Money was found and the designer, taking his design from a crumpled piece of paper, erected a steel skeleton, which he then had grossly deformed with wrecking balls. The structure was clad in shiny material like some of the other weird art museums today, but none of the blue collars in Springfield came. Offered for sale, Mr. Burns bought it and turned it into a privately operated prison..

Art standards should be set by the community in which it is found.

Now look, I don't think it's a great use of money, but a huge number of people would say the same thing about railroad preservation and especially about "taking ol' #7 out of OUR park and spending all that cash to fix her up!" What about all the grief you got from friends for stopping to take pictures of "a train"? Allow me to advocate that art is not necessarily placed there to make "good sense", but to make the observer think, condemn, enjoy, or simply to exercise one's grey matter. Honestly, I've heard the same argument made about going to the dentist made by people who otherwise you'd swear were level headed individuals.

Personally, I'd like to see every child vaccinated, every meal a nourishing one, and a cure for cancer. In the meantime, I can not say I would deny the rest of us an opportunity to read into this artists vision, such as it is. You may think it's crap, but remember what every other kid in high school said about your standing by the tracks to catch a dumb train on film, "you jerk". Don't you wish you took more pictures today?

My FORMER son-in-law and my daughter were travelling with us one time and I got a shot of a train. Then drove further up the line for another shot. He couldn't believe it. "It's the same damn train!"he exclaimed. Fortunately, he is no longer a member of the family!

The wierdest "piece of art" from the steam era that I know of that is on exhibition anywhere is in La Grange, Kentucky. There the old L&N (now CSX) goes right down the main business street of town and passes in front of the Oldham County courthouse. Most of the townspeople are now rather proud of their little two blocks of street trackage and put up with the freights that rumble on through. But in front of the courthouse, and next to the street with the track is the forementioned piece of art; a steel tire from a steam locomotive. Not the driver itself, just the tire hanging there. No explanation even as to what it is. But hey.....it's ART!

Les

While most purists may cringe at this display of "art," let us remember that it is still putting a steam locomotive (a hopefully reasonable facsimile of one, anyway) in the public view. If this thing is hanging there chugging and smoking up a storm and someone is intrigued enough to start volunteering with their local organization, hasn't somthing been gained?

Agreed, it's a little disenchanting to see an engine (thankfully a mock-up) in such a precarious position, but with our ongoing struggle to appeal to the masses, maybe a little outside-the-horizontal-plane-box thinking is a good thing?

TB

I have seen quite a few used locomotive tires hanging in front of fire stations throughout eastern Pennsylvania. They were used to sound the alarm before the days of sirens and pagers. Maybe that was the role of the one Les saw.

GW -

My goodness, I never thought of that. I will have to check the location of the nearest firehouse the next time I am in La Grange. Maybe the LGFD DID place it there when no longer needed.

Les

Arne, if you build it, they will come.

For instance, Ivyland, Pa., and Titusville, N.J.

I just deleted two posts that brought the incendiary mix of religion and politics into this debate. Religious and political jokes are both welcome, but anything that insults a particular faith will not be tolerated.