Friday, January 19, 2007

Plastic Morality

Q:So where does the Deployer draw a line and decide how many plastic toy soldier bodies are enough?
A:For some reason one body never seems to make much of an impact. One can sometimes be enough, but then nobody really sees one body anyway. So the scale can make a great significance for observers to take notice. A few hundred in a pile will receive some attention because in these piles they are more noticeable and intimate due to scale. A few thousand and the piles began to look overwhelming but nothing is ever personal or on that personal level where a person can relate or associate one's own relationship to the pile or individual toy soldier unless one interacts or responds to the deployment.

The piles and their relation to other objects become unique dialogs between the plastic toy soldiers and their new unexplored culture. In some instances it is obvious that the plastic toy soldiers are being kicked around, which is expected. However, the piles that stay up and not shift or change position almost baffle me. It's as if they are placed in a spot that is either difficult to get to, or they are on the path that nobody bothers traveling because it is littered with too many obstacles.
What makes the drop zones more exciting is the interaction between people of different age groups and people from cultures outside of the United States. The read of the work becomes more about where the drop zone is and what the pile's relationship to the space is.

This drop zone seemed to last forever in Kansas City over by the Nelson Atkins Museum. I would not be surprised if the pile was still in the same place but it has been a few months since the this spot was installed.

...And in the Streets.


I found it interesting that some places where the drop zones were implemented, that they were either ignored or run over in a matter of minutes. This particular pile was run over twice in three minutes. One of the cars rolling over the toy soldiers had a yellow ribbon on the trunk of the car.

It's a hell of a thing to be run over by a car. I mean you are here one minute and then crunch. Most of my surrogates are expendable and once they are deployed they are expected to fend for themselves. If its not the roadside bums, it being run down by blind idiots with yellow warning ribbons, or professional green-horn truck drivers.

The street proved to be a bad place for deployment. The drop zones are compromised by the complacent masses, and the deployment must move quick as to not become collateral damage and run down in the middle of road.

Roadside Bums

While I was on patrol for places that would make a good drop zone, I found this one spot... which was in a place called The Plaza in Kansas City Missouri. When out of nowhere I was ambushed by a roadside bum. It happened so fast that I did not have time to think, and in a blink of an eye, there were things that were happening that I needed to shoot with my camera. This faux homeless man instantly started drilling me questions as if he was the chief of Homeland Security. I refused to give in to his badgering and gave him the run around so that I could put some distance between me, the deployed soldiers, and the interrogator.

At one point I was expecting him to tell me that he was a Vietnam vet, or that his car broke down and he needed gas. I had heard most of these lines before from up the street where his competition feverishly work the corners.

After he felt secure enough for the soldiers to occupy the same space he was pulling contributions from, he decided to take a break from his hard day of pan handling to run his hands though the pile of bodies. His hands were very clean for a homeless man, and so I thought it would not soil the soldiers, and this made a great photo opportunity.

The man was more interested in posing for the camera and begging me to bring him a bag of toys for his unfortunate children at his house for Christmas.



Art moves people. It moved this man about ten feet from his five gallon bucket he was using as a seat.

Toy Shock and Awe

Installation Work from 2006 to Present.
Category: Installation Art and Photography



Most of the toy soldiers have been deployed in Kansas City and Wichita, and received interesting responses. The plastic toy soldiers get noticed an then left to lie around for a bit... Then they are swept up and thrown away or recycled. Some of the piles that are in non-obtrusive areas are still in the same piles that they were placed in. So this makes it kind of fun to see where and how long the soldiers will last when deployed in an urban environment.





Some of the piles are closely examined or toyed with in looking for an explanation of why this pile of discarded soldiers are around their path of travel.

In some instances the piles become camouflaged because the supports of the soldiers are torn off and they are left to cling to each other. The piles appear as green masses like green vegetation in a dead urban landscape.

(The pile in the photo with the red car has been run over recently by a truck driver with poor driving skills. A re-deployment may have to happen to replace the troops with Post Truck Stress Disorder.)

Drop Zones

The weight of the World, lies on their shoulders...


Send more troops...

When I make a drop zone, it is generally in a place that is out of the way of high volume foot traffic. This prevents the soldiers from being kicked around out of their piles. I have noticed that there are a lot of sculpture bases like the one above that are made out of granite. These bases are missing their sculptures and make great places to deploy the plastic toy soldiers. Text and other objects are not really thought out about much until I get back to a computer to edit the photos.

I sort of like to approch this work with a playful attitude and read into the work later so that something that I did not think of or intend in the documentation process is extrapolated. I think a person becomes complacent with everyday life. You read one thing one way or you expect to be told something that is valid from a reliable source. You can only become complacent for so long until you are exposed to synchronicity.