Art Danger: Devastating Beauty Specimen 911 Call
July 26, 2010
On Saturday July 24th, 2010 911 was dispatched to the Bloomington Art Center to investigate Devastating Beauty # 120
The tags on the wire of the "specimen" in the Gallery are the trouble makers.
A patron of the gallery noticed that the wires had detonator wire tags. This might be true as I collected the wires strewn down a quarter mile bank of the Mississippi River south of the late Lowry Bridge. It was exploded. Here is the emails I received and sent Saturday.
Peter,
Today we took a call in the 911 center from a concerned citizen about one of your pieces on display in the gallery at the Bloomington Civic Plaza. He was concerned about the nomenclature stickers on the “wire”. It appears what was mistaken for plastic coated wire, are non-electric shock tube detonators – or what is left of them. Most likely, used during some bridge demolition on the river, and afterwards, found by you. I will not suggest you change anything on the display, but you may wish to put a note next to the jug explaining that the items are inert and poses no further explosive hazard.
Thank you for your assistance,
Mark Bloedow
Dispatcher
Emergency Communications Center
Bloomington Police Department
Thanks Mark. I will talk to Rachel, the gallery director, on Monday about the wording. Sorry about the trouble. I wonder if once you got there if there was any real concern there was a real threat?
Thanks, Peter
Reply from:
Peter L. Johnson’s iPhone
(612) 819 1627
www.peterljohnson.com
Just a concern by the patron, no hazard. No harm, no foul.
Mark
I, of course, loved that my art was considered dangerous by someone that panicked and refused to see that even if the wires had detonator tags they are still just fuse wires not explosive. The label has been changed just for fun.
Collected detonator wire and jug that was washed up on the Mississippi River shore # 120
Minneapolis, MN 2009
This plastic coated, now inert, detonator wire was strewn over a quarter mile section of the Mississippi River near Nicollet Island. When I found the orange “vase” nearby I decided to arrange a bouquet. High voltage electrical wires are reflected in the river at the top of the frame.
