It’s a pacifier composed of 30,946 cigarette butts.
Christine Holtz’s award-winning sculpture is comprised of 30,946 cigarette butts. Holtz, a 24-year-old grad student at SIUE, knows this to be true because a few months ago she pushed each one of them onto a wire frame, molded in the shape of a giant pacifier, and counted them as she went along.
The “Adult Pacifier,” she says, is meant to spotlight the notion that smoking is a “repetitive, addictive act.”
“The Adult Pacifier” competed with 11 sculptures on campus. In October, Holtz was awarded second place, behind Sarah Frost’s “Drive,” which was named “Best Sculpture.”
I always wish that any underlying message went unstated. Best is for the artist to play dumb: A simple “gee, I dunno, I just thought it would look kinda cool” works better. Let the audience determine the message. Bottom line, though: I like it!
That reminds me, time for another fag.
Gee, the inability of non-smokers to understand smoking, does not cease to amaze me.
It gives you a buzz. That’s it, nothing Freudian about it.
Many years ago at my alma mater, an art student crafted a 8-9 ft tank solely out of coke cans. I think the message is clear: building tanks out of stuff is cool.
the same holtz from G4tv and Robot Chikens parody of american idol?
Richard, you and I are on the same wavelength. I liked the cigarette sculpture just because it takes what normally winds up in the gutter and turns it into something cool looking. No mean feat !
Bet she did not have trouble finding the butts.