I was roaming downtown Los Angeles recently and found myself in the Arts District feeling all artsy fartsy. All I needed was a beret, a paintbrush, a blank wall… and some talent… and I would have created quite the art piece. But alas, I had no paintbrush and I left my beret at home.
Walking through a corridor I looked up and saw clotheslines strung with various styles of white underwear. It brought me back to childhood when mothers hung their “unmentionables” on clotheslines because they were too “delicate” to be put in the dryer.
I saw thongs, boxers, briefs, and boxer-briefs dangling above me.
What kind of art installation had I stumbled upon? Was there some socio-political message being subliminally sent via the underwear?
Whatever its message, it got me wondering how this happened.
I decided it was a group of art-minded hipsters gathered together and instead of doing a flash mob with a song, they removed their underwear in unison and hung it on lowered clotheslines and cheered as their undies were raised up. I decided what they did was a liberating experience, freedom from the confines of underwear constrictions, a political statement of sorts.
I suddenly had an urge to remove my underwear which got me thinking… Wouldn’t it be great if I copied the idea but made mine interactive?
This is what I’d do:
I would hang clotheslines across Hollywood Boulevard, high enough so they would not be hit by any tall trucks. On the clotheslines I would hang my underwear: white briefs, black briefs, red briefs, blue briefs, and boxer-briefs, too. I would also include my treasured collection of multi-colored jockstraps (red, yellow, blue, and white).
I would name the installation Underwear Revealed… Boxers or Briefs… Or Not?
At designated times each day, new clothesline would be added for passersby to step out of their underwear and proudly have theirs hung with mine. It would be the ultimate underwear performance art!
Because it’s Hollywood, it would certainly generate the interest of celebrities who would make public appearances adding their undies to the ever-increasing clotheslines. I foresee underwear hanging above Hollywood Boulevard for as far as the eyes could see...
Aah… Inspiration… Damn, I love art.
Mother was right when she said never leave home without clean underwear. You never know when you’ll get the urge to take it off.
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