punk’d at Farragut North
Sorry for the lack of picture with this entry, guys, but it took me a bit to figure out exactly what I was looking at and in the meantime didn’t want to risk being wrong.
So there I was, leaving my office to meet up with Tom and another friend of ours for a DC Film Society showing of Accepted, when I notice a bunch of police milling about, and a small crowd lingering on the corner near the entrance to Farragut North at Connecticut and K. Being a dedicated DC Metroblogger, I knew I had to figure out what was going on.
It didn’t take long to figure out- there was a torso and a pair of legs sticking out of the trashcan on the corner. Appropriately horrified and incredulous that such a thing could happen in broad daylight downtown, I entered the Metro station and continued on my way. And that’s when I realized:
– The cops were snickering a bit
– There was no crime scene tape (yeah, I watch CSI)
– No one seemed to be taking statements from anyone
– The way the legs were hanging seemed just a bit unnatural
Yeah, it was a dummy. Someone stuck a dummy, face-first, into a trashcan at the corner of Connecticut & K. Nice prank, but I can’t help but get annoyed when people waste police time with that kind of crap.
Was this a regular dummy or more along the lines of a Mark Jenkins installation? – http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html
Those legs get around quite a bit. …spotted ’em on a traffic-light electro-box thingie on 16th & Irving some weeks back. God, I miss those legs.
I’m thinking that might have been one of Mark Kenkins’ installations. Sounds very much like this: “Last month, when Jenkins planted three-quarters of a man, feet flailing, atop a gray utility box on the wedge of concrete between Columbia Avenue and 16th Street, the sight slowed a bus, caused cars to circle around for a second look and moved passersby to pull out camera phones.” That’s from a Wash Post story back on July 23 about Jenkins, who seems pretty damn clever to me.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/21/AR2006072100286.html
Here’s a picture of the installation at Farragut North. It first showed up yesterday.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmprice/212492501/
Jenkins’ installations are terrific. I’ve only seen photographs, so I keep hoping to see one every time I’m in the district.